The Central Electricity Authority (CEA), in a recent advisory, has said that the “salt spray test” cannot be used as a substitute for the mandatory “galvanic protection barrier layer thickness test” for testing of carbon fibre composite (CFC) in HTLS conductors.
CEA has advised all procuring utilities/organizations/users in the power sector to stipulate in their tenders for HTLS (high temperature low sag) conductors the requirement of “galvanic protection barrier layer thickness test” as one of the mandatory tests as per the procedure laid down in ASTM B987 for the core (including single-strand or multi-strand carbon fibre composite cores) for HTLS overhead conductors.
The advisory has cautioned that the “salt spray test” cannot be used as a substitute for the mandatory “galvanic protection barrier layer thickness test”.
CEA has stated that the salt spray test has no correlation with the determination of the thickness of galvanic protection barrier layer on the CFC core in HTLS conductors. The appropriate test for determination of the galvanic protection barrier layer thickness is the test to be performed as per the procedure laid down in ASTM B987 standard, the CEA advisory said.
This diktat has come in the wake of some procuring entities/utilities in the power sector stipulating in their tenders for HTLS conductors with CFC core a requirement of “salt spray test” on their conductors in lieu of the mandatory “galvanic protection barrier layer thickness test” for determining the efficacy of the galvanic protection layer on the carbon fibre composite core to protect it against galvanic corrosion.
Featured photograph (source: CTC Global) showing CTC Global’s ACCC conductor is for representation only.
