Suitability of thermoplastic polymer for the making of HV gas insulated substation insulator

Nowadays, improving the recyclability of the high voltage apparatus is a main concern of the manufacturers. Within this problematic, the suitability of thermoplastic polymer used as support insulator in high voltage gas insulated substation is presented in this paper. Among the possible candidates, a semi-crystalline thermoplastic polyethyleneterephtalate was selected and investigated. To begin with, chemical structure and morphology as well as mechanical and electrical characteristics are presented. In view of extremely promising results, it is worthwhile to perform basic studies concerning the evolution of the material properties under operating conditions. It is shown that the main electrical properties of the material are not affected by aging under used SF₆. Then, we present the manufacturing of plate insulator dedicated to the new 72.5 kV three phase F35 substation insulation.