USE OF EPOXY IN ENERGY AND ELECTRONICS SECTOR
For long, porcelain was the only material used for insulation purposes. However, this material is highly fragile and processing and adjusting is difficult. At the beginning of the second half of 20th century, epoxy resins and other synthetic materials entered the market and brought great ease of processing and variety of designs.
Epoxy resins have been used in energy and electronics industry for more than six decades¹. There are many advantages of epoxy compared to the other solutions. Having the same mechanical strength as porcelain, epoxy insulator weight is reduced by 50-70%². Thanks to its flexibility, electrical parts become smaller and more dimensional accurate. Special epoxy systems enable effective resources use due to its excellent flow properties. Epoxy properties meet the customers requirements for high thermal and chemical resistance, fire retardancy, high crack resistance at low temperatures and higher reparability. Thanks to the high adhesion of epoxy resins, the metallic parts can be easily casted into one solid insulator component.
Excellent electrical insulation properties and high-performance make epoxy resins the ideal material for a wide range of electrical parts and instruments, especially in more demanding high-voltage and outdoor application that require mechanical toughness and weather resistance.
- Insulators, high-voltage connectors, disconnectors, bushing
- Instrument transformers
- Dry-type distribution transformers
- Switchgears components
- Bus-ducts
- Electric motors and electric drives
- Generators
At home, you can meet epoxy resin mainly in electronics. Thanks to its adhesion to both the substrate and the elements, the resin is used for casting of printed circuit boards, sensors, slip rings and control unit compounds.
EPOXY ENABLES CHANGES IN THE FUTURE
The EU Green Deal means a shift from fossil fuels to renewables. This requires huge changes in the European power systems and upgrade to the new grid networks. Epoxy resins will be necessary in many applications where excellent insulation, versatility and resistance is required including instrument transformers that are a part of high-voltage switchboards.
The EU environmental initiatives also mean a shift from conventional vehicles to more sustainable and smart mobility. Epoxy resins accelerate this shift by its using as a light, high-performance, resistant and durable material for composites. Vehicles composites parts bring lightweighting and thus lower fuel consumption and lower emissions. Besides composites parts, epoxy resins play a key role in electrical powertrains for cars and are used in vehicles as an encapsulation material for electrical components and a heat and fire protective material for batteries.
Increase of number of epoxy application is estimated also in IT and electronics sector. Without epoxies, essential everyday items such as smartphones or modern medical equipment like MRI scans would not exist ³. Epoxy resin is a part of internal circuits, transistors and printed circuit boards, LED’s and solar panels.
The use of epoxy resins brings benefits to end users and many industries and is one of the materials of our future.
SPOLCHEMIE EPOXY SYSTEMS FOR ENERGY INDUSTRY AND ELECTRONICS
CHS-EPODUR® product range is dedicated mainly for medium- and high-voltage insulation parts as insulators or bushings and for instrument transformers where excellent adhesion to the metal parts is important. Our epoxy systems are the right solution for vacuum casting and APG (Automatic Pressure Gelation) as well as for winding and pultrusion production technology. Epoxy composite pipes and rods with high mechanical strength and excellent electrical properties are used as a high-voltage insulator, transformers and bushing.
SADURIT® product range includes prefilled epoxy systems for outdoor and indoor use and epoxy systems for casting, encapsulating and potting.
VEROPAL® and VEROBOND® product range offer various adhesives for application in energy industry, electrical engineering and electronics.
Our sales and technical team not only offer you the right solution for your production technology and specific application but also customize our epoxy systems according to your needs. For more information, please contact our segment leader for electro: Jiří Viktora, viktora@spolchemie.cz, +420 736 488 97.
Mgr. Kamila Vítek Derynková, Product Marketing Manager
Jiří Viktora, Segment Leader Elektro & Elektronika
¹ Epoxy Europe: Epoxy has the power: electrical components & insulators, 2022, https://epoxy-europe.eu
² Powell Industries: Comparison of Porcelain & Cycloaliphatic Epoxy Insulation, 1990
³ Epoxy Europe: Epoxies and electronics, 2022, https://epoxy-europe.eu
