LS Cable & System Chairman Koo Cha-yup.

LS Cable & System has developed a marine and ship cable capable of enduring temperatures 70 degrees below Centigrade for the first time in the world.

The company said on May 31 that it acquired a quality certification for a marine and ship cable that could endure such extremely low temperatures from the international standards organization, Canadian Standards Association (CSA).

LS Cable & System’s latest cable can be used for icebreakers and drilling facilities to transmit communications signals and electricity in an extreme environment of 70 degrees below zero. Cables for an extreme environment are required to send communications signals and electricity and to have no cracks despite outside shocks and bending. 

Demand for cables in extreme environments is on the rise thanks to the brisker exploration of polar regions and energy development, influenced by global warming and the development of crude oil drilling technologies. 

“LS Cable & System developed cables capable of enduring 50 degrees below zero 10 years ago and obtained a reference by supplying them to refining facilities in Sakhalin, Russia,” said Kim Dong-wook, head of LS Cable & System Technology Development Division. Despite the sagging shipbuilding and marine industries, development projects in polar regions are being launched in succession, so demand for newer cables for use in extreme environments is expected to steadily rise, he added. 

LS Cable & System plans to raise revenues with a focus on the development of special cables for eco-friendliness, railways, mining and heavy construction equipment on top of the conventional mainstays super ultra-high voltage and submarine cables. 

CSA is a North American global standards organization. CSA certification has been awarded to more than 1 billion products to authenticate regional requirements of safety and functionality. 

Shown above is a marine and ship cable capable of enduring at 70 degrees below zero in Centigrade, developed by LS Cable & System for the first time in the world. 

(Photos:LS Cable & System)

LS C&S has Head Start in Superconducting Cable Industry

Korea is poised to grab a leadership role in the global market of superconducting cables, dubbed “Dream Cables,” outbidding players from more advanced countries. Superconducting cables, which are made with special ceramics and cooled to minus-196 degrees Celsius, have almost no electricity loss. 

LS Cable & System (LS C&S) has successfully commercialized a 154 kV, alternating current (AC), 1 km-long superconducting cable, making it the world’s highest voltage / longest cable, LS C&S President & CEO Yoon Jae-in said in a meeting with reporters in Tehran recently. He said, “It took 10 years for us to catch up with advanced countries and now we lead the industry in developing advanced technologies they’ve developed during the last 30 years.” 

A 138kV, AC, 600-meter-long superconducting cable installed in Long Island, New York, has been listed as the world’s highest voltage, longest superconducting technology.

Germany and Japan have led in the technology of producing superconducting cables, while the United States has excelled in terms of technology application. But LS C&S’s latest commercialization of the technology has earned the Korean company the top position in terms of superconducting cable production and technology application. 

LS C&S researchers had experienced numerous failures in the race with global leaders, but they made a breakthrough in overcoming them, LS C&S President Yoon said. 

Superconducting cables will bring tremendous changes in underground power grid infrastructure, reducing cables to one-fifth of the size of conventional copper cables. That cuts space by 60 percent, Yoon said.