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ELECTRICAL
Bright Ideas Made Possible with Performance Plastics
by Roechling Industrial North America
Performance plastics are an excellent choice for insulation and construction in the electrical industry. They can be used in high-voltage transformers, efficient generators and motors, reliable high-voltage direct current converter stations and switchgear.
Insulating transformers
Transformers must be operationally safe and reliable even at high operating temperatures and high electrical stress. Performance plastics excel in applications for oil-filled and dry transformers. Oil-filled transformers are designed for an operating time of more than 30 years, so they require materials with outstanding properties and manufacturers must plan sizing and design with care. A failure of operations, resulting in loss of income and premature, short-term new procurement would be disastrous for operators. Performance plastics meet these requirements, are oil-resilient and have very high dielectrical and mechanical resilience. Thus, they contribute to the reliability of oil-filled transformers around the world. Performance plastics contribute to the success of dry transformers, as they require materials that can hold up to high operating temperatures and dielectrical stresses and can meet the demands of heat categories F or H depending on the material.
Generators and motors
Motors and generators must be highly efficient and operationally safe. They must be made from materials that meet high electrical, mechanical and thermal requirements. You can find these materials in salient pole generators, turbo generators, wind power generators, hydro generators, high-performance induction motors, synchronous motors and direct current motors. Advantages include high efficiency, a long service life, low maintenance, high mechanical resilience, high thermal resilience and electrically isolating.
Performance plastics offer many advantages for the electrical market
Performance plastics offer many advantages for the electrical market.
High-voltage direct current transmissions (HVDC)
Converters for high-voltage direct current transmission have a planned operating time of 40 to 50 years. The reliability of performance plastics excels in these applications because they combine high dielectrical and mechanical strength with a low moisture intake, are flame-retardant and have a high creep resistance depending on the material. Performance plastics are being used to make reliable high-voltage direct current transmission systems that offer a long service life and operating safety. You can find these materials in mechanical tensioning of thyristors/IGBTs, resistance carriers, capacitor carriers, insulation rods and housings and frames.
Plastics for switchgear
Switchgear must be operationally safe even after several thousand switching cycles and with electrical currents at several hundred kilo ampere. Performance plastics are available with outstanding mechanical and electrical resilience suitable for low-, medium and high-voltage switchgear as well as gas-insulated SF6 circuits.

There’s a performance plastic to meet every standard and use for electrical applications. In addition to the advantages mentioned here, they are also thermoformable, nonconductive, can be made static dissipative or fully conductive, are inherently a good insulator, have hydrolytic stability and are impact-resistant.