Fingerprinting of polymeric insulating materials for outdoor use

Summary

This guide contains a survey on the state of the art of fingerprinting methods presently used for polymeric materials applied for polymeric indoor and outdoor HV insulators, such as composite or cast resin insulators. The fingerprint shall reflect the typical characteristics of the applied material. The basic methods discussed in this technical brochure are Differential Scanning Calometry (DSC), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Infrared Spectroscopy (IR) and density measurements. However, there may be features, especially functional ones such as hydrophobicity or features of nancocomposites, which can not be characterised by the described methods. The materials investigated were commonly used housing materials, structural materials and core materials. Two Round Robin Tests (RRT) and one blind trial were performed by 9 participating laboratories. In conclusion, the 4 investigated methods are suitable to identify the kind of polymer and filler content (if any) in order to classify the material.

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