This book is a guide to the whole field of high voltage insulators as used in electrical power networks, traction and production. It covers the historical development of the shapes - sometimes strange ones - of modern types, decribes the principal materials - both ceramic and polymeric - and their fabrication, explains the physical principles of contamination and flashover, and reviews the mass of data on research and testing.

Practical advice is given, with worked examples and many illustrations, on the choice of insulator, including the problems of the environment and nuisance. The remedies that are available to deal with pollution flashover are compared and precautions are indicated for the potentially dangerous practices of live-washing and live-working.

Useful guiding principles for the designer of power lines and substations are listed with the relevant international standards and tables containing properties of materials. For the student and researcher there are accounts of current basic R&D, and indications of probable future trends. The particularly current topics of optical fibre insulation, direct current and vandal-resistance are covered.

The author's first-hand experience of most of the matters which he describes enables him to write clearly and to avoid confusing mathematical and technical complexities. This is a book for the intelligent layman as well as for the specialist.

About the Author
J.S.T. Looms spent over 30 years in research on HV physics and engineering, many of them as head of insulator research at the Central Electricity Research Laboratories, United Kingdom. There he led the section that developed the Salt Fog test and participated in its international standardisation. He was the first man in Europe to work, bare-hand, on overhead conductors at 400,000 volts and was a pioneer in developing the technique. More recently he has been in practice as a consultant to leading manufacturers and has been responsible for numerous inventions in the HV field, some of which are described in the book.


Book Information
ISBN 9780863411168
Author J.S.T. Looms
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint Institution of Engineering and Technology
Publisher Institution of Engineering and Technology