Morphological study of epoxy resin after electrical tracking

Currently, epoxy resin has been developing as outdoor insulator replace ceramic and glass insulator, because epoxy resin has some dielectric properties better than the ceramic, glass and porcelain material. When epoxy resin was used as outdoor insulator, some factors affecting performance of epoxy resin insulators are like rain, humidity, ultraviolet rays, condensation and contaminant. To improve the surface properties of epoxy resin, then silicon rubber material that has the ability to repel water were added and silica sand was mixed with silicone rubber to improve the mechanical properties. When contaminant flows at the insulator surface, they can cause damage to the surface of the insulator and it was formed tracking on insulator surface and finally cause flashover. This paper presents the morphological studies of epoxy resin sample test after electrical tracking. The tests were conducted at high voltage laboratory with 3.5 kV AC high voltage and 50 Hz. NH₄Cl contaminant was flowed on test sample surface during 6 minutes. After electrical aging was done then samples were taken using SEM devices to be analyzed of morphological condition. The research results showed that epoxy resin material with filled mixtures of silicon rubber and silica 30% (RTV23) did not experience significant damage after electrical tracking by the Inclined Plane Tracking test method.