Aging performance of silicone rubber exposed to UV and sandstorm

This paper describes the aging performance of high-temperature vulcanized silicone rubber (HTV-SiR) resulting from a 2000h UV radiation exposure and a sand-blow test. In this study, HTV-SiR specimens were respectively exposed to an UV exposure chamber and a sand-blow chamber; furthermore, physicochemical analyses were conducted on the specimens before and after the treatment. The results showed that the optimized formulation represented a very slight decrease in elongation at break, volume resistivity and hydrophobicity after the UV exposure. As for the strong sand-blow test, the SiR also represented a slight decrease in the mechanical strength, and the hydrophobicity can recover to its original level after a short-term standing. It was demonstrated that composite insulators with formulation-optimized HTV-SiR can be greatly used in the high plateau area with strong UV radiation and sandstorm.