RTV silicone rubber coatings for outdoor insulators

The paper presents a review of room temperature vulcanized (RTV) silicone rubber high voltage insulator coatings (HVIC). These coatings are designed to replace greasing and water washing of insulators. Present day coatings are the result of nearly thirty years of development and use. In all but a very few dirty environments, these coatings have lasted ten or more years without maintenance and where maintenance has been found to be necessary, water washing is done at a significantly reduced schedule. The paper focuses on the important characteristics of these coatings and on the rigorous attention that is required in their application in order to ensure good performance.