The Most Common Applications for Standoff Insulators

Electrical insulators serve to protect surrounding people and devices from hazards like electrocution and electrical fires. As a specific kind of electrical insulator, standoff insulators keep electricity within its set bounds, preventing it from jumping between parts inside a machine. If you’re wondering how these little pieces work, read about the most common applications for standoff insulators.

Switchgear

The power grid utilizes dozens of parts and devices to harness the electricity we all use, and the switchgear is one such device. Just as the name implies, a switchgear essentially disconnects and reconnects switches and fuses in an electrical system. When a worker comes to perform maintenance on electrical machinery, a technician would use a switchgear to shut off the power supply to the machine, ensuring the person’s safety. In a switchgear itself, standoff insulators help maintain that electrical supply and provide extra security when cutting off the current.

Transformers

Transformers are devices that passively transfer electrical current from one circuit to another. These pieces are crucial for increasing or decreasing the voltage in a system, thereby transforming the strength of the electricity between circuits. Standoff insulators play a critical role in this process, insulating the electrical current during the transition.

Bus Duct

A bus duct is a sheet metal duct created to conduct massive amounts of electricity at one time, typically to power cables that you see running across the sky. As you can imagine, a device of that size and electrical capacity needs insulation to keep the energy where it should be. That’s where standoff insulators come in—they enclose the bus duct pieces and prevent electrical fires from occurring.

Knowing the most common applications for standoff insulators helps operations managers choose the best parts for their machines. If you need standoff insulators for your business, reach out to us at the Red Seal Electric Company today.