An investigation on composite insulators; development and testing

In the first step of this research, the complete design of composite insulators used for the power distribution levels was accomplished, according to the existing standards. A special manufacturing technique was selected due to its overall advantages over the common methods: the ability to manufacture composite insulators with the minimum amount of waste and to produce the sheds for a range of power distribution levels with only one mold. For the manufactured insulators to be safely applied to the power distribution lines in such harsh environments as southern and northern parts of Iran, where all influential parameters-including high relative humidity, temperature, and high levels of pollution (mainly salt deposit)-exist, they must have successfully passed the series of tests specified by the standards. The insulators were therefore subjected to all necessary tests and their results were compared to those obtained from other insulators. Satisfactory performance of the manufactured composite insulators was indicated