In this image is Ilir Biba, Saverio Anzelmo, Artur Biba
The company’s key strength lies in the twenty years of experience of its team, which operates across various industrial sectors, including oil & gas, mining, marine, lifting, and testing. Thanks to its strong creative capabilities, the team has, over the years, re-engineered all products available on the market in terms of technology, quality, reliability, and safety, setting itself apart from competitors with innovative and highly effective solutions. The company offers a wide range of products designed for hazardous areas, featuring EX protection (Ex db, Ex h, Ex eb, Ex sb), all tested and certified under both ATEX and IECEx schemes. The explosion-proof slip ring series (EX db) can meet all the power supply needs of machinery, handling currents up to 1200 A, and including digital and analog communication as well as fiber optic transmission. SPM Special Machine’s Ex h-protected cable reels are used in several sectors, such as lifting, mining, port operations, and oil & gas.
In this article, we present the motorized cable reel for hazardous areas, designed for medium-voltage tunnel applications to power a tunnel boring machine (TBM) of approximately 4.5 MW. The protection type is EX h ATEX I M2, and the same design can also be developed according to the IECEx scheme. The special machine consists of a painted steel drum on which a robust and flexible 12/20 kV medium-voltage cable is wound. The system is driven by a motor-gearbox unit, with automatic cable winding and unwinding managed by an electrical control panel. An automatic cable distribution system ensures the perfect positioning of the cable on the drum.
The core component of the motorized cable reel is the slip ring, which is housed inside an EX db enclosure. This particular high-voltage slip ring is designed for harsh environments and is remarkably compact compared to competing products. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that the active parts are not air-insulated but instead encapsulated with a series of insulating materials. Thanks to this design, the system can easily withstand voltages up to 24 kV and currents of about 680 A. The high-voltage slip ring with insulated active parts is a patented innovation by SPM Special Machine, enabling the company to take on new challenges in markets where extreme engineering solutions are required.
SPM Special Machine Srl – Collettori rotanti elettrici e avvolgicavo
