What Is Rewinding Cable Armor Aluminum Strip

Compared to traditional steel tape armor, cable armor aluminum strip, with its advantages of corrosion resistance, lightweight, excellent conductivity, and compatibility with AC single-core cables, has become the mainstream material for high-end armored cables. The finished product rewinding process, as a key finishing step before the armored aluminum tape is put into production, directly determines the forming quality, protective performance, and service life of the cable armor layer.

I. What is Finished Rewinding Armored Aluminum Tape?

Finished rewinding armored aluminum tape is a finished tape material that has undergone a second precision rewinding process on cable armor-specific aluminum tape (mainly 1060 and 5754 alloy aluminum tape). It is a dedicated core auxiliary material adapted to automated armoring production lines. After rolling and slitting, the initial coiling of virgin aluminum tape generally suffers from uneven tension, misaligned wires, interlayer inclusions, and irregular coil shapes, making it unsuitable for high-speed armoring production.

Rewinding involves using specialized precision rewinding equipment to straighten, arrange, tension-calibrate, dust-remove, and neatly rewind the primary aluminum strip, ultimately forming a tightly wound, evenly arranged, flat-faced, and precisely sized finished strip. This finished aluminum strip can be used directly without secondary processing, perfectly adapting to mainstream processes such as cable spiral wrapping and interlocking armoring, and is a crucial guarantee for the standardized and high-quality production of armored cables.

II. Core Process Flow of Finished Armored Aluminum Strip

Rewinding finished aluminum strip is not simply rewinding, but a refined and standardized finishing process, completed entirely by intelligent rewinding equipment, precisely controlling every detail. The core process consists of four steps:

1. Unwinding, Straightening, and Defect Detection

The primary armored aluminum strip is smoothly unwound. A multi-stage straightening mechanism corrects deformation problems such as bending, warping, and wavy edges. Simultaneously, an online detection system screens for surface scratches, pinholes, cracks, edge burrs, and other defects, eliminating unqualified sections and preventing armoring defects from the source.

2. Constant Tension Precision Cable Laying

This is the core step in the rewinding process. The equipment employs a closed-loop tension control system to maintain constant tension throughout the process, preventing the strip from stretching, deforming, or becoming loose and wrinkled. Simultaneously, a precision cable laying mechanism controls the lateral spacing of the aluminum strip, ensuring no misalignment, overlap, or gaps between layers and coils, resulting in a uniform and neat roll arrangement.

3. Dust Removal, Cleaning, and Surface Protection

Aluminum strips are prone to accumulating aluminum shavings and dust impurities during production and transportation. During the rewinding process, electrostatic dust removal and brush cleaning devices thoroughly clean the surface of the strip, preventing impurities from embedding into the armor layer and avoiding problems such as localized overheating and insulation wear during later cable operation, thus ensuring stable electrical performance of the cable.

4. Standardized Winding and Finished Product Shaping

Based on the compatible specifications of the cable armoring equipment, the winding diameter, coil width, and winding tightness are precisely controlled to achieve standardized winding. The final finished rewinded aluminum strip has a flat coil shape, consistent tightness, and no unevenness at the end face, making it compatible with high-speed automated armoring production lines for continuous and stable material supply.

III. The Core Purpose of the Finished Armored Aluminum Tape Rewinding Process

Many cable manufacturers omit the rewinding step and directly use primary aluminum tape, which easily leads to problems such as poor armor layer formation and decreased cable qualification rate. The value of the rewinding cable armor aluminum strip is primarily reflected in three dimensions: quality, efficiency, and performance:

1. Optimizing Armor Formation and Eliminating Process Defects

Loose and disordered primary aluminum tape rolls are prone to problems such as deviation, wrinkling, uneven overlap, and excessive gaps during armoring, resulting in an uneven armor layer and numerous blind spots. Rewinded aluminum tape has a uniform and stable feed rate, precise wrapping angle, and uniform overlap, perfectly meeting the process requirements of 30°-60° spiral wrapping and ≥25% high overlap wrapping, ensuring a tight fit between the armor layer and the inner sheath, resulting in a neat and defect-free formation.

2. Enhancing Cable Protection and Electrical Performance

A well-formed aluminum tape armor layer can provide comprehensive mechanical protection, effectively resisting external forces such as compression, tension, and impact during cable laying and operation, protecting the internal insulation layer and core. Meanwhile, the impurity-free and deformation-free aluminum tape armor layer offers more stable electromagnetic shielding performance, effectively suppressing electromagnetic interference. It is particularly suitable for the operational requirements of single-core AC cables, avoiding the eddy current heating problems associated with steel tape armor and reducing cable energy consumption.

3. Adaptable to Automated Production, Reducing Costs and Improving Efficiency

The finished rewound aluminum tape requires no secondary shaping or parameter adjustment, allowing direct adaptation to high-speed armor production lines. This enables continuous and uninterrupted material supply, significantly reducing equipment downtime for debugging. It also effectively reduces the scrap rate caused by tape issues, minimizing raw material waste and helping companies reduce production costs and improve production efficiency from the production end.

4. Enhanced Product Weather Resistance and Service Life

The rewinding process removes defective tape and cleans surface impurities. The tape is subjected to uniform stress and has no hidden deformation, resulting in a stronger sealing and corrosion resistance in the finished armor layer. Compared to cables produced without rewound aluminum tape, its outdoor aging resistance, moisture resistance, and corrosion resistance are significantly improved, effectively extending the overall service life of the cable.

IV. Main Application Scenarios of Finished Rewinding Cable Aluminum Strips

Leveraging its advantages of lightweight, corrosion resistance, excellent electrical performance, and stable molding quality, finished rewound armored aluminum tape is widely used in the production of various mid-to-high-end armored cables, covering multiple core areas:

1. New Energy Power Cables: Cables for photovoltaic, wind power and energy storage stations are mainly deployed in harsh outdoor field environments with humidity, strong winds and sandstorms. Aluminum tape armor features corrosion resistance and light weight, adapting to complex outdoor conditions and guaranteeing stable long-term cable operation.

2. Rail Transit and Municipal Engineering Cables: Power and control cables for subways, high-speed railways and urban pipe networks must resist humid, corrosive tunnel and underground pipe corridor environments and avoid eddy current losses. Finished rewound armored aluminum tape cables fully satisfy these electrical and protective requirements.

3. Coastal and Chemical Industry Cables: Steel tape armor easily rusts and fails in coastal saline-alkali and chemical corrosive environments. Rewound armored aluminum tape boasts superior salt spray and corrosion resistance, adapting to severe corrosive conditions and cutting cable maintenance costs.

4. High-end Industrial Automation Cables: Flexible armored control cables for industrial equipment and intelligent production lines adopt regularly rewound aluminum tape. Integrating reliable mechanical protection and excellent flexibility, they fit scenarios with frequent equipment bending and movement.

Original source: https://www.alcustrip.com/a/what-is-rewinding-cable-armor-aluminum-strip.html