Hybrid conductor core

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9490050-B2
Application number	US-201414203922-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 11, 2014
Priority date	Mar 11, 2013
Publication date	Nov 8, 2016
Grant date	Nov 8, 2016

Abstract

An electric conductor may be provided. The electric conductor may comprise a conductor core and a plurality of conductor strands wrapped around the conductor core. The conductor core may comprise a plurality of core strands comprising an overall number of strands. The plurality of core strands may comprise a first portion of core strands and a second portion of core strands. The first portion of core strands may comprise a first number of strands. The first portion of core strands may comprise steel. The second portion of core strands may comprise a second number of strands. The second portion of core strands may comprise a composite material. A ratio of the first number of strands to the overall number of strands and a ratio of the second number of strands to the overall number of strands may be optimized to give the conductor core a predetermined characteristic.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
a conductor core comprising,
a core center strand comprising a composite material wherein the composite material comprises fibers disposed in a thermoplastic matrix, and
core layer strands wrapped around the core center strand and being in contact with the core center strand wherein the core layer strands comprise a first portion of core strands comprising a first material and a second portion of core strands comprising the composite material; and

a plurality of conductor strands wrapped around the conductor core and being in contact with the core layer strands.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the fibers comprise carbon fibers.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the thermoplastic matrix comprises a polyphenylene sulfide.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the composite material has an elastic modulus in a range from about 70 GPa to about 300 GPa.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the composite material has at least one of the following: a density in a range from about 1.2 g/cc to about 1.8 g/cc; a strength to weight ratio in a range from about 500 MPa/(g/cc) to about 1,100 MPa/(g/cc); a percent elongation at break in a range from about 1% to about 2.5%; a linear thermal expansion coefficient in the longitudinal direction in a range from about −0.4 to about 5 ppm per ° C.; a bending radius in a range from about 1 cm to about 50 cm; and a void fraction of less than about 6%.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first material comprises one of the following: steel, standard strength steel, high strength steel, extra high strength steel, and ultra-high strength steel, aluminum zirconium, and 1350-“O” temper aluminum.

7. An apparatus comprising:
a conductor core comprising a plurality of core strands comprising an overall number of strands, the plurality of core strands comprising:
a first portion of core strands comprising a first number of strands, the first portion of core strands comprising a first material, and
a second portion of core strands comprising a second number of strands, the second portion of core strands comprising a composite material wherein a ratio of the first number of strands to the overall number of strands and a ratio of the second number of strands to the overall number of strands are optimized to give the conductor core a predetermined characteristic, the first material having a higher elasticity modulus than the composite material, the first material having a higher thermal elongation than the composite material, and the first material having a higher conductivity than the composite material.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the predetermined characteristic comprises elasticity modulus.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the predetermined characteristic comprises thermal elongation.

10. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the predetermined characteristic comprises conductivity.

11. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the ratio of the first number of strands to the overall number of strands is 1:7.

12. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the ratio of the first number of strands to the overall number of strands is 2:7.

13. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the composite material comprises fibers disposed in a thermoplastic matrix.

14. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the first material comprises one of the following: standard strength steel, high strength steel, extra high strength steel, ultra-high strength steel, aluminum zirconium, and 1350-“O” temper aluminum.

15. The apparatus of claim 7 , further comprising a plurality of conductor strands wrapped around the conductor core.

Assignees

• Southwire Co Llc

Inventors

• Lancaster Mark A

Classifications

• H01B9/008

  for overhead application · CPC title

• H01B9/006 Primary

  Constructional features relating to the conductors · CPC title

• H01B5/102 Primary

  stranded around a high tensile strength core · CPC title