Perforated High-Voltage Insulating Spacer Manufacturing
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing manufacturing processes for high-voltage insulating spacers are complex, costly, and prone to material losses, leading to inferior electrical insulation properties and increased production costs, especially when dealing with large components or varying sizes.
Innovation Solution
A method involving the cutting and expansion of electrically insulating tape to form a perforated three-dimensional lattice structure, allowing for the production of spacers with varied sizes using commodity materials like PET foil, which reduces manufacturing costs and enhances impregnation efficiency with resin.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If crepe paper or mesh-shaped tape is used as spacer material, then the insulating properties are maintained, but the manufacturing process becomes complex, costly, and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces expensive, complex-to-manufacture crepe paper and mesh-shaped tapes with inexpensive commodity materials like aluminum foil and PET foil. These simple materials are processed through a straightforward slitting and winding operation to create the spacer structure, eliminating the need for complex creping or mesh-forming processes while maintaining insulating functionality through the layered construction and resin impregnation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a composite spacer structure by combining different commodity materials (aluminum foil, PET foil, paper) with resin impregnation. This composite approach allows the use of simple, inexpensive base materials that achieve the required insulating and mechanical properties when combined, avoiding the need for complex single-material solutions like crepe paper.
2Quantity of substance
If crepe paper manufacturing process is used, then insulating spacers are produced, but material losses increase and production costs rise
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses inexpensive commodity materials like aluminum foil and PET foil that can be sourced at low cost and processed with minimal waste. The slitting process creates narrow strips that are efficiently utilized in the winding operation, maximizing material usage and minimizing offcuts and defects compared to the crepe paper process which involves significant material transformation and potential waste.
3Shape
If flat surfaces of material attach to each other during winding, then the structure is formed, but impregnation becomes difficult and voids form causing partial discharges
Solution Approach 1:
The patent slits the foil or paper material into multiple narrow parallel strips before winding. When wound in spiral form, these segmented strips create a lattice-like structure with inherent gaps between them, preventing large flat surface areas from contacting each other. This segmentation ensures that resin can penetrate throughout the structure, eliminating voids and ensuring complete impregnation while maintaining the required structural form.
4Adaptability or versatility
If large components or varying sizes are manufactured, then the application range is expanded, but the manufacturing complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a universal manufacturing process using commodity materials (aluminum foil, PET foil, paper) that can produce spacers for various component sizes and applications. The slitting width, winding diameter, and layer configuration can be adjusted to accommodate different scale requirements, from small to large components, without changing the fundamental process or material types, thereby achieving versatility without proportional increases in complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This method enables the cost-effective production of high-voltage components with improved electrical insulation properties and reduced material waste, facilitating the creation of spacers that can withstand strong electric fields while maintaining mechanical integrity.
Implementation Method 1
a polymeric matrix which penetrates the spacer and which embeds the spacer and the layers
Implementation Method 2
the patterned tape is expanded at right angle to the cutting lines in order to form a spacer with a perforated three-dimensional lattice structure
Data Source
Figure 1~3
Figure 4~5
Figure 6~8
AI summary
The method is provided for manufacturing a perforated sheet-like high-voltage insulating spacer (2) for a high-voltage component, which component comprises a field grading condenser core with the spacer which is wound in spiral form around an axis (A), with electrically conducting layers (3) which are inserted between successive windings of the spacer, and with a polymeric matrix which penetrates the spacer (2) and which embeds the spacer and the layers(3). The method comprises at least steps as follows: an electrically insulating tape (2) is moved in a running direction (R), a pattern (P) of parallel extended cutting lines (21, 22) is inserted into the tape, and the patterned tape is expanded at right angle to the cutting lines (21, 22) in order to form a spacer with a perforated three-dimensional lattice structure (LS). The combined effect of cutting a tape and expanding the cutted tape allows the formation of spacers with a manifold of sizes which exceed the size of the tape in function of manufacturing parameters, in particular in function of the configuration of the pattern and of the magnitude of the expansion.