System for controlled aging of electrical windings, to perform an improved Voltage Endurance Test

This paper describes and analyzes a system for controlled aging of electrical Form-Wound Bars and Coils of large rotating synchronous machines. The proposed system allows performing an improved voltage endurance test, if compared to standard procedure given by std IEEE 1043-2002: Recommended Practice for Voltage-Endurance Testing of Form-Wound Bars and Coils [1]. This work will explain the key features of the proposed system, and will discuss why it should be considered an improvement respect to the standard test. System's first prototype was developed by Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana -UPB- and Empresas Públicas de Medellín -EPM-. The invention has patent register in the United States (US Patent 8431876 [2]), and is assigned currently to EPM.