The formation of snow and ice sleeves, which occurs in extreme weather conditions, on the conductors and the safety cables of high-voltage power lines can affect their mechanical resistance with a consequent disruption of the electrical system.

The patent concerns the application of a coating on the safety cables and conductors to mitigate snow and ice sleeves forming on the conductors and safety cables themselves.

The new cable concept developed by Tratos was designed taking into account both the functional features of the item and those of its actual industrial production.

Tratos has developed a cable capable of exploiting the principle of surface discontinuity combined with the icephobicity of the coating.

In detail, by exploiting the hydrophobic and icephobic properties of fluorinated polymers, we have created a cable with alternating metallic outer wires, one bare and one coated with polymer.

This gives two effects: a surface discontinuity which favours the detachment of the snow sleeve and an anti-icing effect due to the presence of icephobic material on the surface of half of the elementary wires.

During an experiment in the winter of 2018-2019 it was found that the newly developed Tratos cable gives an earlier detachment of the ice sleeve compared to the sleeve that developed on the cable as is.

The results of this experimentation were published in IWAIS 2019 – Monitoring, measurements and mitigation for wet snow accretion on over-head conductor.