Useful And Essential Facts About Insulation Tester

By Barbara Morgan


In a perfect world, current that is sent along a conductive wire is supposed to reach the intended destination in full. However, this does not happen in the real world because some of the current is usually lost along the way. There are different reasons why the current gets lost along the way. In an attempt to prevent the loss of current, resistant sheathing is used to insulate conductive wires. Here are facts regarding Insulation tester.

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.

A cladding tester is usually used to carry out the testing. The tester tests the resistance of the insulating material to the flow of current thus, determining its integrity. There is very little loss of current for insulating materials of high quality. On the other hand, insulating materials of poor quality will allow large amounts of current to escape.

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 starts out very high and drops just in the same way capacitive current does. However, what differentiates the two kinds of current is the fact that absorption current drops much slowly. The storage of potential energy within the cladding is responsible for the gradual drop in absorption current. In cladding testing using time resistance method, absorption current is a very important part.

Conduction current is the other name used for leakage current. This current is present through and over the cladding and it is small and steady in nature. The increase in leakage current implies deterioration of the cladding over time as well. In insulation test meter, the rise in leakage current is indicated as a reduction in resistance.

Currently, different types of cladding testers are available in the market. Different manufacturers from different countries produce these devices. The manufacturer of the equipment largely influences its quality. Different models of cladding testers are used to perform different functions. For instance, some testers are designed to perform testing in residential settings while other testers are meant to be used for testing equipment in industries.




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