Reka Cables type tests its products

Cables must meet the prescribed safety requirements. These are specified in both international and national laws and statutes and in electrical engineering standards, such as IEC and CENELEC. The working groups that draw them up include experts from user groups, manufacturers and testing facilities.

In addition to the product and its material requirements, their role is to determine the most appropriate test configuration to ensure
- suitability of the product and its materials (type test)
- consistency across production batches (sample test)
- immediate operational safety of each single product – in the case of cables, of each metre of length (routine test). 

From third party testing to certification 

The manufacturers may carry out the type testing by them selves, but customers often appreciate a test set up carried out by an independent third party. The product certificate certification process as well which enables a certificate to be issued for the product.  Reka Cables does carry out type testing on its own as well, but some more complex tests or more complex property tests are contracted to independent laboratories.  

An excellent example of an independent testing facility is Norwegian Sintef Energiforskning A/S in Trondheim, where Reka Cables has completed its 52 to 145 kV high voltage cables type tests and the respective Nordic SATS Certification (SATS: Scandinavian Association for Testing of Electric Power Equipment). The type test set up was based on the demanding International and European standards, so that test cable raw materials, construction and electrical properties would match the requested high voltage system parameters, by using, for example, a heating cycle test that heats the cable above the nominal operating temperature and the 650 kV impulse voltage test. In addition to mechanical material property measurements, a longitudinal water penetration test was performed to measure constructions ability to limit water penetration, in case for example external damages caused by excavators occur. 

Reka’s Sintef type testing and the issued Nordic SATS Certificate² for 52kV to 145kV high voltage cables up to 1200 sqmm, is a clear statement favouring power cables designs for the demanding conditions in the Nordic countries.