Connected Underway Replenishment (CONREP) operations connect a Combat Logistics Force (CLF) ship to a cargo receiving ship via a 1in wire rope highline. A cable cutting technology is required to disengage the cable rapidly under emergency conditions. Cutting time requirement is approximately 1 second. The current solution used an explosive driven device which incurs handling and storage limitations that are undesirable. A review of existing emergency cable cutting technologies shows a deficiency in offerings relative to stated CONREP requirements. Multiple hydraulic cable cutters are available however they are comparatively slow, taking 10s of seconds to complete a cut. An additional drawback of these units is requirement for a hydraulic powerpack to provide pressurized fluid for operation. PSEMC offers an energetically driven blade cutter however the larger diameter cutters use a high explosive for actuation. Cut times are fast but limitations of explosives exist. EMPI has existing thermal breaching technology which can be leveraged to solve the emergency cable cutting challenge. A prototype C500 cartridge with demonstrated 100% cut on solid 1 3/8 diameter steel bars will be used to demonstrate feasibility. A cable tensioning fixture will be designed to allow cut demonstration at up to 10k lb load.
Benefit: Multiple commercial applications exist for this technology. Frequently when a load is suspended from an aircraft an emergency cable cutting method is required to release the cargo in the event of an emergency. Another application is sub-sea recovery of ship propellers tangled in wire rope. It is thought that opportunity also exists in energy exploration markets for both demolition and emergency release of cargo.
Keywords: high explosive, high explosive, hydraulic, tensile load, emergency cable cutting, Wire Rope, Thermal breaching, TEC Torch, thermite
