Instrumentation Cables

Gopal Ponnuram
Instrumentation Cables are used in Industrial control systems
where analogue or digital signals are converted to useful
information such as Pressure, flow rate, position and
Temperature
 Almost all Process industries uses
Instrumentation to measure and control various parameters. Oil and Gas,
Cement ,paper plants are some examples

Analogue

Examples
Digital
Instrumentation Cable Design
• Instrumentation cables are required to transmit “Clean” signals within industrial environment, where is a
high level of electromagnetic interference through potentially hazardous areas and Mission Critical
functions.
• Critical functions of an Instrumentation cables are
• Noise Rejection –from outside and from nearby cables, like cross talk
• Electromagnetic and electrostatic induced noise and harmonics noise
• In order to achieve this instrumentation cables are of twisted pair (this ensures the voltages induced in
the two wires are approximately equal and opposite and hence cancel out).
• The screens ( shield)surrounding the insulation provide the common mode and cross talk noise
reduction.
• Where some pairs operate at a higher voltage than others electrostatic noise is likely , each pair
is individually shielded.
• All shields will have a tinned copper drain wire to allow equalisation of potential along the
tape shield and for easy earthing connection.
• Also to eliminate circulating currents each individual pair is electrically separated by a polyester
tape layer.
Various Types of Cables
 FOIL Shields
Types of
screens
( shields)
 Braid Shields (Cu)

Combination Shields
Foil/ Braid

Braid
Shields

There are other types like Spiral, Triple shields

Shield Effectiveness
 Design Options Conductor:
•PAC or TAC
Insulation:
•PVC, PE, PP, XLPE, LSZH
Standards Conductor
Conductor •24AWG, 20AWG, 18AWG, 16AWG •50V, 110V, 300/500V, 450/750V,
•0.22mm2, 0.5mm2, 0.75mm2, 1mm2, 1.5mm2 600/1kv
•In-House •Class 1, 2 or 5
•BS5308.1 PE ins (300/500V) Insulation
Insulation •Mica glass Tape
•BS 5308.2 PVC ins (300/500V)
•EN 50288-7 (90, 300, & 500V) on-shore
•IEC 60092-376 (150/300V) off-shore
•AS/NZS 2373 (0.6/1kV)
•UL 13 300V Power Limited Tray Cables Twins/Triples
Twins/Triples Screen:
•Al/polyester foil screen with drain
•UL 2250 300V Instrument Tray Cables Multicore
•UL 1277 600V Instrument Tray Cables Multicore wire.
•Braid PAC or TAC
•Copper tape
Element
ElementScreen
Screen •Steel tape

Assembly
Assembly

Fire Performance Overall

OverallScreen
Screen
•IEC 60332-1
•IEC 60332-3 Cat A / Cat C Armour:
•IEC 60331 Bedding Armour Bedding: •Steel wire
Bedding Armour •PVC, PE, LSZH
•IEC 60754-2 •Steel tape
•IEC 61034-2 •Brass tape
•AS/NZS 3013 Chem/Environ Protection: •Steel braid
Sheath
Sheath •Moisture Barrier
•Spear sheath
Sheath: •Nylon
•PVC, PE, LSZH, NY
•PJ filling
•Water blocking yarns
•Lead sheath
UL Specs
UL 13/2250
Power Limited Tray cables
UL Specs
Tray cables
Intrinsic Safety
• In high fire or explosion areas such as oil refineries , it is common practice to design
instrumentation systems so that energy stored in the reactive components of each circuit is too
small to cause ignition of flammable materials in the area even in the event of damage to the
cable.
• This is achieved by dividing each circuit in to intrinsically’ safe sections’ and ‘not safe’ sections by
way of a barrier such as shunt diode which will prevent dangerous energy levels passing from one
section to other.
• The safe section is designed to minimise the inductance, capacitance and L/R ratio of the total
circuit within specified limits . Typically the cable specification will call for a maximum limit of’ L/R
ratio ‘of the cable.25 to 60( Micro Henry/Ohm)
• The Intrinsic safe cable jackets are coloured Blue. These cables are normally have armour and Fire
resistance jackets.
Customer Questions to ask