HV Outdoor Switchgear - Contact Grease

[andrewwalter]

Hello,

I am an engineer designing high voltage (36 - 145kv) outdoor switchgear for substations.

Currently we use a contact grease called Kopr Kote for grease between the main busbars and terminal palms. However, recently i have found that over the lifespan of the switchgear, this grease can harder and essentially fuse the busbars and terminal palms together. I have done some checmical analysis and it appears that high levels of molybdenum in the grease can harder with high currents and high heats.

Speaking with other companies and engineers - this is a range of other grease's that have been suggested:

1) Rheolube 368
2) COMPOUND ANTISEIZE ROCOL COPPER 500GM
3) MolyKote BG20

Does anyone have any experience or suggestions as to what would be an improvement to what we currently use?

The applications are outdoor (10 - 45 degrees C, low to high humidity and dusty environments) and ranging from 36 - 145kv, 800 - 1600 Amps.

thx for your help!

 

[ScottyUK]

Prysmian's Bicon X1 compound is long-established in the UK for large cable lugs and for busbar joints. I don't recall any dismantling problems even on generator neutral links which are massive copper bars about 12" x 1.5" and five feet long with a large joint area where the link bar mounts onto the palm of the bushing.

http://www.bicon-uk.com/BICON-Compounds-and-Resins/

 

[prc]

Is the grease same for copper and aluminium? andrew refers to aluminum or copper bus bars?