Customized posts

---

There are numer­ous com­po­nents in pri­ma­ry sub­sta­tions and con­vert­er sub­sta­tions – such as smooth­ing reac­tors, thyris­tors or rec­ti­fi­er tow­ers – that have to be insu­lat­ed from the ground poten­tial. They sit on a throne of spe­cial post insu­la­tors many meters off the ground. Not only do these posts have to bear the weight of com­po­nents, which weigh tons, they also have to be capa­ble of with­stand­ing tor­sion­al and bend­ing forces at the same time.

DDe­pend­ing on where the appli­ca­tions are locat­ed, they can be shak­en by earth­quakes or strong winds. There are also increas­ing­ly high­er volt­age ranges that have become nec­es­sary due to the ener­gy trans­for­ma­tion in order to trans­fer elec­tric­i­ty across long dis­tances with as lit­tle dis­si­pa­tion as pos­si­ble. Post insu­la­tors there­fore need to be capa­ble of insu­lat­ing up to 1,100 kilo­volts against ground. For many years, Rein­hausen Pow­er Com­pos­ites has been an expert in com­pos­ite hol­low insu­la­tors and spe­cial­izes in exact­ly these types of extreme appli­ca­tions.

Strong pipes, flexible shielding

Pipes made of fiber-glass-rein­forced plas­tic are cru­cial for sta­bil­i­ty. Start­ing at the design stage, every detail mat­ters. The angle and lay­er design, as well as the type of fiber-glass wind­ing, deter­mine the mechan­i­cal and elec­tri­cal prop­er­ties. Spe­cial­ists at Rein­hausen Pow­er Com­pos­ites devel­op the design using the finite ele­ment method (FEM) which allows them to man­u­fac­ture the pipes to the respec­tive customer’s pre­cise require­ments.

The high­er the volt­age, the longer the creep­age dis­tance. This can be con­trolled, on the one hand, by the length of the com­pos­ite insu­la­tors. RPC is capa­ble of pro­duc­ing up to 12.5 meters in a sin­gle piece. The sec­ond impor­tant com­po­nent is the shield­ing: the creep­age dis­tance is length­ened using spe­cial shield pro­files, espe­cial­ly for DC appli­ca­tions.

For HVDC appli­ca­tions, for exam­ple, com­po­nents such as shield pro­files with spe­cial drip­ping edges are required. Pow­er Com­pos­ites uses a vari­ety of shield­ing tech­nolo­gies. For exam­ple, extru­sion tech­nol­o­gy has high flex­i­bil­i­ty with respect to its geom­e­try, ensur­ing that it can be high­ly cus­tomized to meet the customer’s wish­es.

Filling and monitoring

Post insu­la­tors are typ­i­cal­ly filled with gas to pre­vent any mois­ture from get­ting inside them. In order to meet all cus­tomer require­ments, RPC has also devel­oped an insu­lat­ing foam which make the post insu­la­tors – in con­trast to the gas-filled vari­ant – not only main­te­nance-free, but also envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly since they do not emit any insu­lat­ing gas­es that are harm­ful to the envi­ron­ment.

On request, solu­tions for mon­i­tor­ing the pres­sure and tem­per­a­ture of the gas can also be devel­oped. Sen­sors from our sub­sidiary, MESSKO, offer solu­tions that have been proven in the field time and again.

---

YOUR CONTACT

Do you have any ques­tions about the insu­la­tors?
Con­tact Manuel Sur­nic:
M.Surnic@reinhausen.com