Saturday, June 22, 2019

Useful Information Regarding Insulation Tester

By Barbara Morgan


Full current is expected to reach the desired destination when sent along a conductive wire under perfect conditions. However, some current is usually lost during the transmission, making this to be impossible in the real world. Several factors make some current to be lost during the transmission. However, this loss of current can be managed by insulating conductive wires using resistant sheath. This is what Insulation tester is all about.

In some cases, current is allowed to escape and get lost due to imperfection in the material used to insulate conductors. When this happens, a lot of harm is done to electrical circuits and machinery. For safety purposes, routine testing can help in determining if the insulation is performing well. Problems can be identified through routine tests before equipment failure or injury happens.

This testing process is done using a pieces of equipment referred to as an cladding tester. The equipment tests the integrity of the cladding by measuring its resistance to the flow of current across it. If the cladding is of high quality, it means that very little current will escape through it. On the contrary, if the cladding offers very little resistance, then a higher amount of current will flow across it.

When measuring the quality of cladding, testers measure different types of currents. Absorption, capacitive, and leakage current are the three kinds of current that are measured. When voltage is first applied to a conductor, there is an initial burst of current that flows. This initial burst of current is referred to as capacitive current.

Capacitive current can be equated to the volume of water that comes out of a pipe immediately a tap is opened. Once the tap is opened, water usually flows out at a higher rate but as the pipe gets filled with water completely, the rate drops rapidly. For the case of a conductive material, the amount of current flow drops once the conductor becomes fully charged.

Absorption current is similar to capacitive current in that it starts out high but then drops. The only difference between these two kinds of currents is that absorption current drops at a much lower rate compared to capacitive current. The gradual drop in absorption current is due to the storage of potential energy in the cladding. Absorption current makes an important part of the time resistance method of cladding testing.

The third type of current tested is leakage current, which is also called conduction current. Unlike the other currents which drop over time, this type of current is small and steady. The current occurs both over and through the insulating sheath. Sheath that deteriorates in quality over time causes the leakage current to increase as time passes. The increase in leakage current as resistance decreases is indicated by an insulation test meter.

There is a wide range of cladding testers in the market today. The various models of these products are made by manufacturers located in various countries. The quality of individual testers depends on the manufacturer of the equipment. Also, the various models of these devices in the market are used in different applications. There are testers that are meant for residential testing and those that are meant to be used in industries.




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