Insulators

The word insulator (from French isoler - "to separate") serves for the designation of the device preventing the formation of the electric contact and also providing the mechanical relation between the parts of the electric equipment, being under various electric potentials.

 

Insulators are used for fixing, supporting or directing the electric conductors and at the same time providing the insulation between them, from the earth and etc. Their external surface is made very smooth to prevent the formation of the deposits of non-insulating materials - water, salt, dust, oxide and smoke. Insulators are formed often as: bell, accordion, skirt, cylinder, groove and so forth.

 

Insulators can be manufactured from any insulation material as usual from very firm and not porous, for example, ceramic material (porcelain, talc), glass, sintered basalt, firm rubber, plastic or composite insulation materials. They can contain different fixing elements: holders,  screws, bolts, clamps, stitchings, strops, pins, cross-arms, hoods, rods, suspension or bearing captures.

 

The suspension insulators assembled in insulator strings are used for outdoors networks and consist of several elements. The conducting cable or the conductor is fixed to the assembly which is suspended on the corresponding supporting structure. The other suspension insulators (in the form of balls, bells, rollers) are used for traction lines and overhead transmission lines.

 

Motionlessly fixed insulators can be equipped by fixing elements (metal hooks, pins) or have not any  support, but can be established on network or cable poles, walls, ceilings, floors.