A cable plough for encapsulating a ploughed cable during installation with a thermal medium

摘要

A cable plough, arranged to encapsulate a cable 110 in a primary thermal medium 190, comprises: a plough share (130, figure 3) to cut a trench, a primary thermal medium chute (140) through which the primary thermal medium passes into the trench and a cable chute 150 to guide the cable into the trench so that it is encapsulated with the primary thermal medium. Also disclosed is a method of encapsulating a cable in a primary thermal medium whilst laying the cable in a trench by; feeding the cable through a cable chute into the trench, and urging the primary thermal medium into the trench so as to embed the cable in the primary thermal medium. Preferably an auxiliary chute 160 is included which may feed out an auxiliary medium. The auxiliary medium may be loose geological matter with a particular thermal conductivity, or it may be water to moisten the primary thermal medium, or it may be a fiber optic cable. The cable plough is preferably for use with a high voltage cable and may use a pump mechanism or an Archimedes screw to urge the primary thermal medium through the chute.