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Identifying & Locating Contaminated Insulators

Identifying & Locating Contaminated Insulators

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Patroling Coastal Areas or Dusty-Dirty Terrain During Seasonal Change Can be an Effective Strategy for Locating Arcing Insulators Before Flashover Occurs

Salt, dirt, industrial contamination, and various particulates coupled with moisture can cling to insulators forming a contamination layer that conducts leakage current from the conductor to the insulator base.  Over time, the contamination forms a dry-band of arcing that can cause a flashover outage event or a pole fire.

THE PROCESS OF INSULATOR CONTAMINATION THAT LEADS TO FLASHOVER
Insulator in Flashover Mode and Process of Scintilation

Exacter health assessments across susceptible circuits detect insulators so they can be cleaned or removed before causing a fire, outage, or flashover.

Using Exacter as a predictive and preventive measure in coastal areas where salt contamination can cling to insulators can be a very effective mitigation strategy.  

In 2011 and 2012 Exacter commissioned The Ohio State University Power Laboratory to conduct experiments, studying, and filming various aspects of insulator contamination, arcing, scintilation, and flashover.  The study is now part of the electrical engineering curriculum at The Ohio State University.  We believe it is the most definitive video work on the subject -- and has been condensed into just 12 minutes!  We invite you to learn more about the various aspects of insulator contamination.  

Exploring Insulator Flashover and Scintillation from Davey Tree on Vimeo.