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Home / Technical Articles / Insulating materials in electrical equipment
Press paper /pressboard for Electrical purposes
Press paper /pressboard for Electrical purposes

The reason for using insulating materials is to separate electrically the conducting parts of equipment from each other and from earthed components. Earthed components may include the mechanical casing or structure that is necessary to enable the equipment to be handled and to operate. Whereas the ‘active’ parts of the equipment play a useful role in its operation, the insulation is in many ways a necessary evil.

For example in an electric motor the copper of the winding and the steel core making up the magnetic circuit are the active components and both contribute to the power output of the motor; the insulation which keeps these two components apart contributes nothing, in fact it takes up valuable space and it may be considered by the designer as not much more than a nuisance.

For these reasons, insulating materials have become a design focus in many types of electrical equipment, with many companies employing specialists in this field and carrying out sophisticated life testing of insulation systems. Such is the importance attached to this field that major international conferences on the subject are held reg-ularly, for instance by the IEEE in USA, IEE and Electrical Insulation Association (EIA) in UK and the European Electrical Insulation Association (EEIM) in Europe, all of which publish the papers presented. Conferences are also held in Canada, India and South Africa.

The simplest way to define an insulating material is to state what it is not. It is not a good conductor of electricity and it has a high electrical resistance that decreases with rising temperature, unlike conductors.

The following are the most important properties of insulating materials:

  • Volume resistivity, which is also known as specific resistance.
  • Relative permittivity (or dielectric constant), which is defined as the ratio of the electric flux density produced in the material to that produced in vacuum by the same electric field strength. Relative permittivity can be expressed as the ratio of the capacitance of a capacitor made of that material to that of the same capacitor using vacuum as its dielectric.
  • Dielectric loss (or electrical dissipation factor), which is defined as the ratio of the power loss in a dielectric material to the total power transmitted through it. It is given by the tangent of the loss angle and is commonly known as tan delta.

The volume resistivity, relative permittivity and tan delta values for a range of insu-lating materials are shown in Table 1.


Representative properties of typical insulating materials

Table 1Volume resistivity (Ωm)Relative permittivityTan delta (at 50 Hz)
VacuumInfinity1.00
AirInfinity1.00060
Mineral insulating oil1011–10132.0 – 2.50.0002
Pressboard1083.10.013
Dry paper10101.9 – 2.90.005
Oiled paper2.8 – 4.00.005
Porcelain1010–10125.0 – 7.0
E-glass10166.1 – 6.70.002 – 0.005
Polyester resin1014–10162.8 – 4.10.008 – 0.041
Epoxy resin1012–10153.5 – 4.50.01
Mica1011–10154.5 – 7.00.0003
Micapaper1013–10175.0 – 8.70.0003
PETP film10183.30.0025
Aramid paper10162.5 – 3.50.005 – 0.020
Epoxy glass laminate4.5 – 4.70.008
Silicone glass laminate4.5 – 6.00.003
Polystyrene10152.60.0002
Polyethylene10152.30.0001
Methyl methacrylate10132.80.06
Polyvinyl chloride10115.0 – 7.00.1
Fused quartz10163.9

The most important characteristic of an insulating material is its ability to with-stand electric  stress without breaking down. This ability is sometimes known as its dielectric strength, and is usually quoted in kilovolts per millimetre (kV/mm).

Typical values may range from 5 to 100 kV/mm, but it is dependent on a number of other factors which include the speed of application of the electric field, the length of time for which it is applied, temperature and whether ac or dc voltage is used.

Another significant aspect of all insulating materials that dominates the way in which they are categorized is the maximum temperature at which they will perform satisfactorily. Generally speaking, insulating materials deteriorate over time more quickly at higher temperatures and the deterioration can reach a point at which the insulation ceases to perform its required function. This characteristic is known as ageing, and for each material it has been usual to assign a maximum temperature beyond which it is unwise to operate if a reasonable life is to be achieved. The main gradings or classes of insulation as defined in IEC 60085:1984 and its UK equivalent BS 2757:1986(1994) are listed in Table 2.

Where a thermal class is used to describe an item of electrical equipment, it normally represents the maximum temperature found within that product under rated load and other conditions. However, not all the insula-tion is necessarily located at the point of maximum temperature, and insulation with a lower thermal classification may be used in other parts of the equipment.


Table 2 – Thermal classes for insulation

Thermal classOperating temperature (°C)
Y90
A105
E120
B130
F155
H180
200200
220220
250250

The ageing of insulation depends not only on the physical and chemical properties of the material and the thermal stress to which it is exposed, but also on the presence and degree of influence of mechanical, electrical and environmental stresses. The pro-cessing of the material during manufacture and the way in which it is used in the com-plete equipment may also significantly affect the ageing process.

The definition of a useful lifetime will also vary according to the type and usage of equipment; for instance the running hours of a domestic appliance and a power station generator will be very different over a 25-year period. All of these factors should therefore influence the choice of insulating material for a particular application. There is therefore a general movement in the development of standards and methods of testing for insulating materials towards the consideration of combinations of mate-rials or  insulating systems, rather than focusing on individual materials. It is not uncommon to consider life testing in which more than one form of stress is introduced; this is known as multifunctional or multifactor testing.

Primary insulation is often taken to mean the main insulation, as in the PVC coat-ing on a live conductor or wire. Secondary insulation refers to a second ‘line of defence’ which ensures that even if the primary insulation is damaged, the exposed live com-ponent does not cause an outer metal casing to become live. Sleeving is frequently used as a secondary insulation.

Insulating materials may be divided into basic groups which are solid dielectrics, liquid dielectrics, gas and vacuum. Each is covered separately in the following sections.

SOURCE: El. power Engineer’s handbook by F.Warne

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Edvard Csanyi

Electrical engineer, programmer and founder of EEP. Highly specialized for design of LV/MV switchgears and LV high power busbar trunking (<6300A) in power substations, commercial buildings and industry facilities. Professional in AutoCAD programming.

3 Comments


  1. Gillis Baker
    Apr 14, 2018

    What is the dielectric strength of G-10-Gerolite ?


  2. Material electrico
    Apr 06, 2018

    excellent article thank you very much!

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