Facile Construction of Functionally Graded Insulator Using Integrated 3D Printing-Vacuum Casting Approach

Functionally graded insulation (FGI) is a novel concept of electrical insulation, which has a spatially non-uniform distribution of permittivity and/or conductivity. Previous studies have verified that the effectiveness of FGI in the field of electric field equalization without increasing the complexity of insulation structure. However, the complexity of the conventional fabrication process challenges the industrial-grade application of FGI insulation. Herein, a facile method, named as integrated 3D printing-vacuum casting, is introduced to address the challenge of FGI construction. General step of the proposed method is firstly introduced, and two cases including an 12kV non-uniform post insulator and a lattice-based permittivity graded insulator. The proposed fabrication method provides a novel approach for high-performance insulation system in both AC and DC GIS/GIL devices with advanced insulation performance and elevated operation reliability.