Sea Marconi is among the few laboratories in the world able to perform material and insulating fluid compatibility tests — a topic coming up more and more often in the cases arriving at the lab.
Alongside traditional mineral insulating oils, transformers are increasingly using new insulating fluids, including ester-based liquids, natural or synthetic. At the same time, to extend equipment life and meet Eco-design requirements, new construction materials are being used.
This scenario, often without symptoms detectable through normal analytical checks, can generate unwanted interactions between the materials inside the tank. Here’s what can happen:
- Metal corrosion: sulfides form, creating conductive paths between windings — a prelude to catastrophic failures.
- Early fluid degradation: sludge forms, hindering the machine’s cooling.
- Accelerated gasket aging: leaks and infiltrations open up.
- Stray gassing: abnormal dissolved gases form, often difficult to interpret and not attributable to classic thermal or electrical faults.
A tailored approach, not a catalog
The accredited Sea Marconi laboratory is among the few in the world able to perform material compatibility tests and provide independent assessments of their interaction. We design a tailored investigation protocol, calibrated to the type of equipment and the operating context, drawing on decades of experience gained from post-mortem inspections of real failures.
Do you have materials or fluids to validate before putting them into service?
Tell us about your case: we’ll propose the most suitable protocol.
Contact the laboratory or learn more about the service
