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Friday, June 21, 2019

Useful Information Regarding Insulation Tester

By Barbara Morgan


Under perfect conditions, current that is allowed to pass through a conductor is supposed to go all the way through to the destination intact. However, given that there are no perfect conditions, current leakage occur and electrical energy is lost along the way. This happens for different reasons. Resistant sheathing is usually used to clad conductors in order to try and prevent or minimize the loss of electrical energy due to leakage. This is worth knowing about Insulation tester.

In some cases, imperfections in cladding material allow current to leak and get lost to the surrounding. The leaking current can cause a lot of problems to the machinery and electrical circuits. That is why in order to maintain safety, the cladding needs to be tested on a regular basis. Doing this helps to identify problems before they cause equipment failure or harm people who handle the equipment through electrocution.

A cladding tester is usually used to carry out the testing. The tester tests the resistance of the insulating material to the flow of current thus, determining its integrity. There is very little loss of current for insulating materials of high quality. On the other hand, insulating materials of poor quality will allow large amounts of current to escape.

When measuring the quality of material used to make the sheath, different kinds of current are tested. Absorption, leakage and capacitive currents are the three main types of current tested. The current that occurs immediately when voltage is applied to conductors is referred to as capacitive current.

Capacitive current is the same as the first burst of water that flows out of a hose when the tap is first opened. The flow of water is usually very high initially, but it rapidly drops as the hose becomes fully filled with water. In this case, it is the conductor becoming fully charged that leads to the drop in the current flow.

Absorption current starts out very high and drops just in the same way capacitive current does. However, what differentiates the two kinds of current is the fact that absorption current drops much slowly. The storage of potential energy within the cladding is responsible for the gradual drop in absorption current. In cladding testing using time resistance method, absorption current is a very important part.

Conduction current is the other name used for leakage current. This current is present through and over the cladding and it is small and steady in nature. The increase in leakage current implies deterioration of the cladding over time as well. In insulation test meter, the rise in leakage current is indicated as a reduction in resistance.

The market today is filled with a wide variety of cladding testers. Manufacturers are located in various countries worldwide. Different manufacturers make products that have different levels of quality. Similarly, the applications that different products are used for vary. One should be careful with their choice because there are residential, commercial, and industrial testers in existence.




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