The Effect of Curing Conditions on the Electrical Properties of an Epoxy Resin

Epoxy resins have been used in many high voltage applications like cable terminations and cast resin transformers, where the performance of the associated devices depends critically on the effectiveness of the epoxy insulation. The curing process is key to epoxy electrical performance and, therefore, it is necessary to understand the effect of variations of curing conditions on the electrical properties of the epoxy insulation that results. The work described here is focused on studying the effect of the curing conditions of an epoxy resin, based upon measurements of the influence of curing protocol on the AC breakdown strength, DC conductivity, T-g and permittivity of a bisphenol-A system. This research is of potential significance for understanding the behavior of the epoxy resin, because it evaluates the extent to which various curing conditions - and hence network structures - can affect properties.