Page 36 - Analysis Report of Global Market in the Submarine Cable Field (2017)

Wire and Cable

3.10 Location and type of optical amplifier housings: It is important to times on the same length of cable! This repeated launch & recovery was
ensure that the optical amplifier housings used in future system projects to simulate real life problems where plough faults can occur and the
are included in the sea trial. Hengtong Marine selected Huawei Marine plough dive has to be stopped & recovered to deck for repair. This was
Networks to supply the optical amplifier housings and incorporated two successfully demonstrated without any mechanical, electrical or optical
different amplifier housing designs in the sea trial. Both the HMN R1 degradation.
2 fibre pair unit and the HMN R2 6 fibre pair unit were incorporated
into the lightweight surface lay and armoured cable plough burial trials 3.17 Use of international industry standard cable ships and cable
(4 optical amplifier housings in total). UJs and UQJs cable joints were handling equipment and procedures: It is important to select a cable
also included for verification of land based testing carried out by the UJ ship equipped with standard international cable equipment and which
Consortium. has a successful track record deploying & repairing international optical
cable systems. This confirms that new products can be handled using
3.11 Selection of an internationally recognised authority to witness standard procedures and equipment, without modifications.
the sea trial: To ensure that an unbiased record events of sea trial
operations was maintained it is critical that an independent industry 3.18 On-board cable system testing parameters & limits during
expert is engaged to witness all marine operations, from system loading offshore operations: The selection of parameters to test during the
to system discharge back ashore after all trials have been completed. trial is essential to demonstrate that the cable system operates correctly
Hengtong Marine Selected Captain David Foster, a former cable ship and within specification. The cable insulation resistance, conductor
commander and recognised international cable expert, with more than resistance, optical fibre attenuation, PMD, output optical power and
40 year’s experience of system deployments and repair operations. stability should all be monitored & recorded, during deployment,
standby time and recovery operations.
3.12 Cable loading logistics (single line or twin line): To achieve
competitive system load out speeds and timescales, it is a key 3.19 System unloading (discharge ashore): After the marine operations
requirement to minimise cable ship or cable freighter time alongside the are complete and the cable ship returns to Port the cable systems
cable factory Port. One method of achieving this objective is to utilise should be unloaded to avoid damage and to respect the cable handling
twin line loading. This should be included as part of the sea trial plan. parameters (tension, bend radius and abrasion).
3.20 Post sea trial cable examination of cables, joints and Optical
3.13 Cable deployment speeds and tensions: Marine operations
should be planned to show that products can be handled, deployed & Amplifier Units: A detailed investigation, re-testing (optical, electrical
recovered to industry standard deployment speeds and recovered safely & mechanical) and dissection of cables, joints and Optical Amplifier
within acceptable cable handling parameters (NTTS, NOTS, NPTS). Units is required to demonstrate that the products have not degraded
This requirement impacts the sea trial design including cable lengths, in any way due to the loading, marine operations or discharge of cables
selection of water depth at trials location etc. back ashore. This is the final quality check to verify products are of the
highest manufacturing standard and suitable for use in subsea systems.
3.14 Vessel standby times (simulating repair times): Another key
requirement is for the cable shipto stand to the cable for a period to 4. Analysis of the Hengtong Marine HORC & HOUC cable sea trial
allow testing and for cable jointing during repair operations. Under The Sea Trial planning actually started more than 1 year before
these conditions the cable pay-out is stopped & the cable is suspended implementation. The cable specifications and fiber types were carefully
from the cable ship, subjected to dynamic cable tensions for a prolonged selected and various sea trial locations were considered. Once the
period of time. During the Hengtong Marinesea trial all cable system water depths for each of the sea trials was agreed, cable manufacture
trials were subjected to this requirement, with holding periods of 6 hours commenced using a number of different production lines with all cable
(testing) and 24 hours (for Branching Unit integration & jointing). being completed several months prior to the trials load out date.
Hengtong Marine Composite Conductor Production Lines
3.15 Cable recovery speeds and tensions: Realistic cable recovery speeds
to verify operations can be completed within cable operating parameters
(NTTS, NOTS, NPTS).
3.16 Re-use of cables: Most sea trials would use newly manufactured
cables and deploy & recover the system once. At Hengtong marine we
like to do things differently. It was decided to re-use the LW cable from
the 5000m water depth trial, and reconfigure the cables to complete the
Branching Unit (BU) 4000m water depth trial.

3.16.1 The BU trial is a more severe test of the LW cable as the single
Leg A has to support the weight of the Branching Unit and the other Ultimately it was decided to integrate the cable systems using the
two cable Legs B&C, effectively supporting more than 8000m of cable! Hengtong Marine “System Integration & Test Area” and utilize twin line
Hengtong decided to proceed in this manner to verify the robust cable loading to verify the load out gantry to Hengtong Port.
construction & ability to re-use cables. This test was successful with the Cable System Jointing In Progress on the Integration Area
re-used LW cable testing good for optical & electrical parameters and
with no mechanical degradation or damage.

3.16.2 For the armoured cable plough burial trial in normal operations
the plough is normally launched on DA or SA cable just once and
recovered on a fresh length of cable. Once again Hengtong Marine chose
to demonstrate the robust cable construction by launching & recovering
the plough on the smallest armoured SAL cable, not just once but 5

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