INSULATORS

SUBMITTED BY:
G urpreet uppal
EEE 3rd year
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been possible
without the kind support and help of many individuals and organizations. I
would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of them.

I am highly indebted to Mr. Vikas kumar (H.O.D.EEE) and all faculty member
for their guidance and constant supervision as well as for providing
necessary information regarding the project & also for their support in
completing the project.

Gurpreet uppal

EEE 3rd year

Contents
 Introduction
 Properties
 Types of insulator
 Damaging of insulator
 Voltage distribution on string
 Methods of improving voltage distribution
 Materials of insulator
 Introduction
The insulator for overhead lines provides
insulation to the power conductor from the
ground. The insulators are connected to the
cross arm of the supporting structure and
the power conductor passes through the
clamp of the Overhead line insulators, as
the name suggests, are used to electrically
insulate pylons from live electrical cables.
Electrical insulation is a material or object
which contains no free electrons to permit
the
flow of electricity. When a voltage is placed
across an insulator, no charge or current
flows. An
object intended to support or separate
electrical conductors without passing
current through itself is
called aninsulator.The term  electrical
insulation has the same meaning as the
termdie lec tric

These insulators are mainly made of either

glazed porcelain or toughened
glass. The materials used for porcelain are
silica 20%, feldspar 30%, and clay 50%. The
porcelain should be ivory white, sound and
free from defects.
Toughened glass is also sometimes used for
insulators because it has
higher dielectric strength ( 35kV for one-
tenth inch thickness ) which makes it
possible
to make use of single piece construction,
whatever be the operating voltage. Glass
being transparent, it is very easy to detect
any flaw like trapping of air etc. it has lower
co-efficient of thermal expansion and, as a
result the strains due to temperature
changes are minimized. The major
drawback of glass is that moisture
condenses very
easily on its surface and hence its use is
limited to about 33kV
PROPERTIES OF INSULATOR
 Overhead line insulators are designed to
have both electrical insulation and
mechanical strength.  Highly insulative
material is used and a recurring design
theme are the “watershed” fins that
discourage conductive water paths
during rain and provides the required
electrical leakage insulation distance
 It should possesss high mechanical
strength to bear the conductor load
under worst loading condition.
 It needs to have a high resistance to
temperature changes to reduce
damages to power flasheover.
 The leakage of earth current should be
minimum to keep the corona loss and
radio interference within limits.
 The insulator material should not be
porous and should be impervious to
gases in atmosphere and should be free
from impurity and cracks which may
lower the permittivity.
Types of insulators
There are three types of insulators used for
overhead lines
 Pin type
 Suspension type
 Strain type
Pin type insulators

A pin insulator consists of a nonconducting

material such as porcelain, glass, plastic,
polymer, or wood that is formed into a
shape that will isolate a wire from a physical
support (or "pin") on a  utility pole or other
structure, provide a means to hold the
insulator to the pin, and provide a means to
secure the conductor to the insulator. By
contrast to a strain insulator, the pin
insulator is directly connected to the
supporting pole. The earliest pin insulators
predate the strain insulator and were
deployed before about 1830. Pin insulators
continue in production with manufacturers
worldwide.
The pin insulator is designed to secure the
conductor to itself. The most common way
to do this is to use a wire to tie the
conductor to the insulator. Another method
is to design the insulator with self-typing
features such as complex slots and grooves
formed into the insulator. Finally, for heavy
conductors, gravity can be used to hold the
conductor in place.
Pin insulators are almost always deployed in
the open air, so isolation when wet is a
major consideration. To combat this
problem, pin insulators feature extra skirts
or wide shells to increase the surface
distance between the conductor and the
pin.
The "pin" is typically a wooden or metal
dowel of about 3 cm diameter with screw
threads. The pin insulator has threads so
that it can be screwed onto the pin. A
typical pin insulator is more than 10 cm in
diameter and weighs one kg or more. Size
depends on the voltage to be isolated and
the weight of span of wire to be supported.
Suspension type insulator

The suspension insulator, as its name

implies, is suspended from the crossarm
and has the line conductor fastened to the
lower end. It is designed for ease of linking
units together. Linking of these insulators
gives you the versatility of ordering one
insulator to be used with varying voltages
Theses insulators consists of one or more
insulator units flexibly
Connected together and adopted to be
hung for the cross arm of the sporting
structure
and to carry a power conductor at its lowest
extremity. Such composite units are known
as string insulators. Each insulator is a large
disc shape piece of porcelain grooved on
the undersurface to increase the surface
leakage path between the metal cap at the
top and the metal pin at the bottom of the
insulator. The cap at the top is increased so
that it can take the pin of another unit and
in this way a string of any required number
of insulators can be built. The cap and the
pin are squired by means of cement. The
standard unit is 10n X 5.75n in size. The
diameter is taken as 10n as it gives
optimum
spark over to puncture voltage ratio.
Increasing the diameter further increases
the
flash over or spark over voltage but it lower
the above ratio which is undesirable.
Suspension insulators being free to swing,
the clearances required
between the power conductor and the
suspension structure are more as compared
to
pin type insulators. This means the length
of the cross arm for suspension insulators is
more as compared with the pin type.
The suspension insulators, in addition to
being economical as compared to
pin type for voltage more than 33kV, have
the following further advantages,
 Each insulator is designed for11kV and
hence for any operating voltage a
string of insulators can be used
 In case of failure of one of the units in
string, only that particular unit
needs replacement rather than the whole
string.
 Since the power conductor and string
swing together in case of wind
pressure, the mechanical stress at the point
of attachment are reduced
as compared with the pin type of insulator
where because of the rigid
nature of the attachment fatigue and
ultimate brittleness of the wire
result.
 The operating of the existing transmission
can be increased by adding
suitable number of discs in the string
instead of replacing all the
insulators as is necessary in case of pin type
insulators

 
Strain type insulators
The strain insulator looks exactly like the
suspension insulator but is designed to hold
much heavier physical loads. Strain
insulators are used when a pull must be
carried as well as insulation provided.Such
places occur whenever a line is dead-ended,
at comers, at sharp curves, at extra long
spans, at river crossings, or in mountainous
country. In such places the insulator must
not only be a good insulator electricallybut
it also must have sufficient mechanical
strength to counterbalance the forces due
to tension of the line conductors.
Description of strain insulator:
A typical strain insulator is a piece of glass
or porcelain that is shaped to accommodate
two cables or a cable shoe and the
supporting hardware on the support
structure (hook eye, or eyelet on a steel
pole/tower). The shape of the insulator
maximizes the distance between the cables
while also maximizing the load-bearing
transfer capacity of the insulator. In
practice, for light loads such as radio
antennas, the strain insulator is usually in
tension.
Use of strain insulator:
Strain insulators are typically used outdoors
in overhead wiring. In this environment
they are exposed to rain and in urban
settings, pollution. As a practical matter, the
shape of the insulator becomes critically
important, since a wetted path from one
cable to the other can create a low-
resistance electrical path.
Strain insulators intended for horizontal
mounting therefore incorporate flanges to
shed water, and strain insulators intended
for vertical mounting are often bell-shaped
Damaging of insulator
The electrical breakdown of an insulator
due to excessive voltage can occur in one of
two ways:
 Puncture voltage is the voltage across
the insulator (when installed in its normal
manner) which causes a breakdown and
conduction through the interior of the
insulator. The heat resulting from the
puncture arc usually damages the
insulator irreparably.
 Flashover voltage is the voltage which
causes the air around or along the surface
of the insulator to break down and
conduct, causing a 'flashover' arc along
the outside of the insulator. They are
 usually designed to withstand this without
damage.
Most high voltage insulators are designed
with a lower flashover voltage than
puncture voltage, so they will flashover
before they puncture, to avoid damage.
Dirt, pollution, salt, and particularly water
on the surface of a high voltage insulator
can create a conductive path across it,
causing leakage currents and flashovers.
The flashover voltage can be more than
50% lower when the insulator is wet. High
voltage insulators for outdoor use are
shaped to maximize the length of the
leakage path along the surface from one
end to the other, called the creepage
length, to minimize these leakage
currents. To accomplish this the surface is
molded into a series of corrugations or
concentric disk shapes. These usually
include one or more sheds; downward
facing cup-shaped surfaces that act as
umbrellas to ensure that the part of the
surface leakage path under the 'cup' stays
dry in wet weather. Minimum creepage
distances are 20–25 mm/kV, but must be
increased in high pollution or airborne sea-
salt areas.
STRING EFFICIENCY
“String Efficiency” is a measure of
utilization of material in the string and is
defined as,
flashover voltage of string
n* flashover voltage of one unit
or

voltage across the whole string

n*(v/g across the unit adacent to line
conducto)

Where, n is the number of insulator units in

the string
When n=4
METHOD OF IMPROVING
STRING EFFICIENCY
Use of long cross arm:
String efficiency can be improved by
reduction in stray capacitance to the
ground. This would equalize the voltage
distribution.
Capacitance Grading
The voltage distribution can be equalize
by assembling a string with units of
different capacitance of appropriate
voltage. The line end units has got the
greatest capacitance while top unit the
smallest.
Guard Rings
This is the most efficient method of
equalize the voltage distribution by
fitting rings or shield to the bottom
insutator or to the clamp and connected
to the line. This increase the stray
capacitance to the line and decrease the
stray capacitance to earth.
Insulator Materials:
Overhead line insulators are mostly made of
the following materials
1. Porcelain, which is widely used for all
the abovementioned overhead line
insulator types.
2. Glass, which may be used for disc and
pin types. It’s thermal stability is
consistent up to 538 degrees C
3. Composite synthetics, which may be a
combination of fibreglass, plastic and
resin. These are sometimes used for the
longrod and post type insulators and
have been in service for more than 25
years. When modern composite
synthetics are used, often the insulative
core consists of glass fibers in a resin-
 based matrix to achieve maximum tensile
strength
4. The housing  that encloses a composite
synthetic also forms the water-sheds and
may be hydrophobic (water repellent),
which helps reduce leakage current.
Some housings are designed to remain
hydrophobic when polluted, giving
composite synthetics a distinct advantage
over porcelain types. A rule of thumb
operating temperature range spec for
housing is -50 to 50 degrees Celsius.
5. Plasticised wood, also referred to as
Polymer Concrete has been used for post
type insulators. Polymer Concrete has
demonstrated thermal stability in excess
of 300 degrees C.  Since both these
designs utilise organic material, there
have been concerns about material
lifespan and lack of UV resistance
6. Coupling fittings for overhead line
insulators (i.e. the ball-socket and clevis-
tongue interlocks) are normally
galvanised cast iron and forged or mild
steel. Clevis and pins may be specified
with a coating of hot-dipped galvanised
zinc to protect the base metal against
severe corrosion
7. For ease of load specification
identification, each insulator is marked
with its specified Electromechanical
Failing Load and the name or trademark
of the manufacturer in conformance with
IEC 60383