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This cabeling machine creates the cable in Cabett’s Freeport facility. A spool of underwater cable being prepared to ship overseas. Cabett GM Tim Wooters (on left) is shown here with Mustang EPG Sales Manager Mark Reed.

No Interruptions for Cabett

Having an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) may not be as critical for most manufacturers as it is for, say, a hospital operating room. But there are some products where it can be nearly as important. Undersea cable is a good example.

Cabett Subsea Products, Inc. manufactures cables and umbilical systems used to connect offshore production platforms to deep undersea wellheads. Their dockside facility in Freeport (TX) builds cables up to 100 miles long. These cables may carry electrical wiring and power cables, stainless steel hydraulic tubes, fiber-optic cable and strength elements (such as wire or Kevlar rope), all covered and segregated by a polyethylene layer. As many as 37 separate elements can be stranded together by their planetary cabling machine.

Regardless of length, these cables must be manufactured in one pass. It is imperative there be no power outages during the extrusion process used to form the polyethylene outer jacket. "With the extrusion process, we have a highly precise line control that must be maintained to keep the diameter of the cable from varying within a +/- 0.03 of an inch tolerance," says Cabett GM Tim Wooters. "Any power spike causes the line speed to vary, which changes the diameter and, very possibly, the integrity of the cable."

Depending on the size and length of the cable, the extrusion process could last up to 50 hours. An interruption of power during this process essentially means losing everything that had passed through the extrusion machine.

That’s why Tim Wooters was interested in a backup power supply for his new plant that could guarantee no outages, surges and spikes when he ran into Mustang Power Systems’ Mark Reed at the 2001 Offshore Technology Conference. Reed had just the solution for him in a 900 kVA flywheel UPS working in conjunction with a Caterpillar 3508 genset (1 mW, 480 v) and a 1200 amp Caterpillar transfer switch.

While continuity of power is the primary goal, another benefit of the Cat system is the automatic power factor correction. Cabett is billed on the basis of a peak load that is significantly dampened by the UPS. As the result, even though their extrusion lines probably pull 300 plus amps at full throttle, Cabett’s electric bills have been very reasonable.

Since being installed in July of last year, Cabett’s system has detected (as of mid-February) 239 power interruptions, but their UPS equipment has kept the current flowing as though nothing happened. According to Tim Wooters, "Our Caterpillar system provides an excellent insurance policy. It’s been worth every penny, and then some."

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