Slack provision during trenching of submarine cables - uses pulleys suspended above or fixed to trenching equipment

摘要

The procedure relates to the provision of slack, when moving an already laid submarine cable into a trench in the sea bed to avoid damage due to fishing vessel equipment. Initially, an extra section of cable is spliced into that already laid. A slack loop is held ahead of the trench cutting machinery (4) by a roller held at a suitable distance abov ethe bed by a submerged float or a surface vessel keeping a constant distance ahead of the cutter. The loop can also be held by a platform mounted on the cutter, the cable running over a fixed and a sliding pulley (7a, 7b) before looping (5) into the cutter and trench. A further form has a series of pulleys on the platform the cable following a repeated Z-shaped path between them.