“ Composite-insulated bushings now represent only a few percent of the market but will definitely grow. The only unknown at this time is whether this growth will prove linear or exponential.”
Jürgen Jeske, General Manager( retired) Haefely-Trench, Switzerland, 1995
Photos: INMR ©
� INMR visited the Provincial Electricity Authority( PEA) of Thailand in 1995. Chairat Preechacheewawat and Chaiyaporn Navarat( right) were engineers who took us to see trial installations of 33 kV silicone insulators near a cement plant and also near the coast. PEA had its own development program for composite insulators at the time, headed by R & D Manager, Somsak Nitisaringkarin.
� Several longtime friends of INMR, including( from left) Rüdi Stieger( formerly of Micafil), Mangesh Rajadhyaksha( retired recently from Huntsman after a long and distinguished career) and colleague Hans-Jörg Wieland, now with Motic Electric in China, as well as an unidentified guest all enjoy a glass of Chablis at the 1996 Congress in Singapore.
“ From the very start, we developed our new arrester designs with silicone in mind since it was a material which offered good pressure relief, did not burn and maintained hydrophobicity – all advantages which our customers could quickly appreciate.”
Walter Schmidt, General Manager( retired) ABB High Voltage Technologies, Switzerland January 1998
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Part 2 of this article will appear in INMR Q3, 2013