What are the mechanical specifications of the Smart Cable?
Such as:
- breaking strength
- safe working load
- minimum bending radius
- etc
Hey there Tony!
The breaking strength of the cable is 10kN measured from terminator to terminator in tensile loading.
The safe working load is 2kN under the same conditions but can be applied when the cable is sufficiently looped around a block (pulley) or capstan.
The minimum bend radius is something a bit more tricky and applies mostly to the conductor integrity rather than the kevlar. We lifted 850lbs up and down hundreds of times. With a block of 4" diameter and a capstan of 3.5" diameter we noticed a “cliff” where cables did much much more poorly with diameters less than this. So if you plan on re-using the cable again we recommend you maintain a 4" diameter over any block or sheave or capstan or winch. Two asterisks here – *1) If you have a cable that has been in the ocean for a long time or otherwise bent or kinked or twisted, we should not expect the same results *2) The caskets (metal parts around a sensor node) don’t fit over any known lifting equipment so it can be hard to maintain a smooth transition over a sensor node. All in all you’re pretty safe to use the SM cables to lift with but if they can’t be handled smoothly it’s best to replace them before the next deployment.
Please let me know if you can think of anything else you want to know.