Contribution to the testing of treeing inception in needle arrangements manufactured by different methods

A round robin test (RRT) on long-term electrical treeing formation in low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is in progress under the coordination of the CIGRE WG 15-06-03. For such a procedure it is required that the effects of the specimen preparation process on the final results should be minimal and that the testing procedure be able to distinguish among different materials. Some results of short-time treeing tests that address these issues are reported and discussed. It is found that the treeing-inception voltage (TIV) is a parameter characteristic of the particular material and that the average TIV parameter is little influence by specimen manufacturing procedures.<>