Silicones for outdoor insulator maintenance

This paper reviews outdoor insulator contamination problems and presents the variety of silicone based maintenance solutions from a historical perspective, from early silicone greases to the latest RTV elastomer products. Results of a current study on commercially available RTV coatings is compared in terms of specifications, actual uncured and cured physical properties, and results of electrical performance evaluations are presented. An attempt is made to attribute observed differences in performance to the levels and types of formulation components and how these may affect installation and performance in-use of these coatings.