CONTROL OF MANUFACTURING PROCESSES FOR CHEMICALLY CROSS LINKED POLETHYLENE INSULATED ELECTRIC CABLES AND FOR OTHER PRODUCTS USING CHEMICALLY CROSS LINKED POLYETHYLENE

摘要

An improvement is made to instruments which have been used historically tomeasurechemiluminescence in oxidative stability studies of chemically cross linkedpolyethylene (XLPE) toallow said instruments to measure thermoluminescence and thereby theconcentrations of byproducts in XLPE, either as an aggregate concentration or as individualconcentrations. Theimproved instrument selects in turn the wavelength of a by product's emittedlight and therebymeasures all the individual concentrations of the individual by products inturn.The improved and adapted instruments of the present embodiments are integratedinto aproduction process for chemically cross linked polyethylene insulated electriccables or for otherproducts made of chemically cross linked polyethylene. This allows in situ on-the-fly measurements ofby product(s) concentration(s) to aid in control, with the use of a computer,of process temperature(s)and other control variables (e.g., peroxide concentration) as selected by amanufacturer.The measurements obtained by the improved and adapted instruments of thepreferredembodiments can be combined with mathematical models and sophisticatedcomputer software,newly created or already in use in the chemically cross linked polyethylenecable manufacturingindustry, to improve further the control of the chemically cross linkedpolyethylene manufacturingprocess for not only insulated electric cable but also other products made ofchemically cross linkedpolyethylene such as, but not limited to, medical prosthetic devices and goodspackaging.