For those who looking for the best service and guarantee of a more efficient energy supply, Balestro silicone rubber insulator IPB series for high voltage will meet your expectations. This is due to its design that includes the best technology, moulded in an unique part hindering the moisture penetration in its inner parts (avoiding the brittle fracture failure), increasing its life span and achieving a high attractive cost-benefit. Balestro, having more than half a century of experience, uses only prime raw material, like the silicone rubber in its products: a world wide trend in the insulator manufacture, surpassing glass, porcelain and other polymers.

Balestro´s Polymeric Insulators IPB series for High Voltage are manufactured for use in electric power transmission and subtransmission networks, substituting the chains of porcelain or glass used in suspension and dead-end. The polymeric insulators have been projected based on the priority that each material fulfills a specific function in its performance such as:

•   Fiber Glass Core - high mechanic strength;
•   Silicone Rubber Covering - high perfomance as outdoor electric insulating, getting
    an insulator of optimized characteristics and excellent electromechanical
    performance.

The main advantages
The IPB HV insulators are manufactured from fiber glass rod core, to which the end fittings (socket, ball, clevis, etc. according to NBR 7108, IEC 120 and ANSI C 29.2 standards, in zinc hot dip forged steel) are fixed and later applied to this set the insulating covering in silicone rubber, getting a highly trustworthy insulator, compact, light, with great mechanical and environmental resistence and excellent closing (immune to moisture penetration to the core). The main advantages gotten with the use of the HV polymeric insulator Balestro, IPB serie are:

•   Compact sizes, resulting in lighter insulators than the conventional (it reduces the
    weight up to 90%), reducing the cost of the structures, the transportation and
    storage, the handling of installation, etc.
•   Immunity to vandalism;
•   The octo compression of the fitting to the fiber glass core gives a high lasting tensile
    strength, without suffering significant changes throughout its useful life.
•   Excellent environmental performance, mainly in places with a high pollution rate,
    due to the silicone rubber covering performance characteristic. The hydrophobicity
    gives high superficial resistance, even in rainy conditions the formation of
    continuous layers of water, dry chanels and arcs in the surface of the insulator are
    prevented; this reduces the risk of flashover and tracking. Another important property
    of silicone rubber is its ability to transfer its hydrophobicity to pollution deposits on
    surface of the covering, keeping the same in polluted conditions;
•   High resistance to tracking, erosion and also to growth of fungus;
•   High thermal stability, not suffering effects even under high temperature conditions,
    keeping its electric characteristics;
•   Low toxicity.
•   The silicone rubber properties maintain its characteristics for a long time. This does
    not happen with other polymeric composites.

Pollution levels
In the last decades, the necessity to develop insulators for each pollution levels, according to IEC 60815 Standard was verified due to different pollution kind combinations: sea (salt), dust, industrial and carbon monoxide. There is not a simple solution because each place has different characteristics. Taking this into consideration Balestro, in its permanent process of research and products development, project three profiles of insulators, giving solution to its customers for the 4 pollutions levels of the IEC 60815 Standard and places that exceed these values.

These 3 profiles of isolation thus are called:

• NP - Normal pollution (Level 1)/ NP
• AP - High Pollution (Level 2 and 3)/ AP
• EAP - Extra High Pollution (Level 4 or upper) EAP