Undersea armored cable

Abstract

A waterproofed, insulated conductor or cable and a method of fabricating the same using a new slushing compound is described. The waterproofed insulated conductor or cable includes a core with at least one conductor element, a polymeric insulation jacket, at least one textile covering over the polymeric jacket, and at least one waterproof coating on top of said at least one textile covering, the waterproof coating comprising a blend of from 15 to 40, preferably 20, weight percent of pine tar oil, the remainder being essentially natural (Trinidad) asphalt. The invention is especially suitable for fabricating armored cables in which armor wires, deposited on a textile yarn bedding, are embedded in a coating of the blend and further are covered by at least one textile yarn roving and a waterproof coating on top of each of said at least one waterproof coating. Pine tar oil-based blends demonstrate mechanical, physical and handling characteristics comparable to cables waterproofed with prior-art coal tar oil-based blends. Furthermore, the new blends use lesser quantities of pine tar oil than the quantity of coal tar oil in the prior-art blends, leading to lower losses of oil prior to and during the application of hot blends.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.