Silicone rubber (VMQ/PVMQ) with high tear strength. Hardness 50 IRHD

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allu Shanmukha Rao

Abstract: In any power transmission system, insulators are essential for a reliable electrical power supply. The Efficiency of insulators will be decided by their electrical and mechanical properties. Recently in many of the power transmission systems, the conventional porcelain insulators are being replaced by polymeric insulators due to various advantages in their properties. Polymeric insulators have been increasingly popular in recent years as a result of their superior performance in contaminated environments due to their hydrophobic nature. However, research is still being carried out on Polymeric material with regards to ageing condition and feasibility for large scale utilization. Ageing of insulation is due to Environmental, Tracking and Erosion conditions. Ageing leads to immature failures and uncertainty in the performance of the insulators. The constituent materials and their properties have a significant impact on the performance of polymeric insulators. There is a strong need to look into newer filler materials which can be added to the existing polymeric base materials to constitute a composite. Keeping this in mind, in the proposed research uses Silicone rubber as base polymeric material and along with that additives are added to arrive at three different composites. A new filler material will be added to the base material forming a new composite. All these HTV Silicone rubber based composites are then tested the recovery of hydrophobicity, dielectric strength, hardness, specific gravity, tensile strength , ultimate elongation ,tear strength properties based on ASTM standards. Further, Inclined plane Tracking and Erosion studies are also conducted on the polymeric test samples for 6 hours to evaluate the SiR housing material suitability for outdoor insulator applications by subjecting them to AC high voltages under laboratory conditions as per IEC 60587 standards. Keywords: Recovery of hydrophobicity, dielectric strength, hardness, specific gravity, tensile strength, ultimate elongation, tear strength, inclined plane tracking and erosion, ageing, filler material.


Author(s):  
Tim Oliver ◽  
Akira Ishihara ◽  
Ken Jacobsen ◽  
Micah Dembo

In order to better understand the distribution of cell traction forces generated by rapidly locomoting cells, we have applied a mathematical analysis to our modified silicone rubber traction assay, based on the plane stress Green’s function of linear elasticity. To achieve this, we made crosslinked silicone rubber films into which we incorporated many more latex beads than previously possible (Figs. 1 and 6), using a modified airbrush. These films could be deformed by fish keratocytes, were virtually drift-free, and showed better than a 90% elastic recovery to micromanipulation (data not shown). Video images of cells locomoting on these films were recorded. From a pair of images representing the undisturbed and stressed states of the film, we recorded the cell’s outline and the associated displacements of bead centroids using Image-1 (Fig. 1). Next, using our own software, a mesh of quadrilaterals was plotted (Fig. 2) to represent the cell outline and to superimpose on the outline a traction density distribution. The net displacement of each bead in the film was calculated from centroid data and displayed with the mesh outline (Fig. 3).


Author(s):  
Tim Oliver ◽  
Michelle Leonard ◽  
Juliet Lee ◽  
Akira Ishihara ◽  
Ken Jacobson

We are using video-enhanced light microscopy to investigate the pattern and magnitude of forces that fish keratocytes exert on flexible silicone rubber substrata. Our goal is a clearer understanding of the way molecular motors acting through the cytoskeleton co-ordinate their efforts into locomotion at cell velocities up to 1 μm/sec. Cell traction forces were previously observed as wrinkles(Fig.l) in strong silicone rubber films by Harris.(l) These forces are now measureable by two independant means.In the first of these assays, weakly crosslinked films are made, into which latex beads have been embedded.(Fig.2) These films report local cell-mediated traction forces as bead displacements in the plane of the film(Fig.3), which recover when the applied force is released. Calibrated flexible glass microneedles are then used to reproduce the translation of individual beads. We estimate the force required to distort these films to be 0.5 mdyne/μm of bead movement. Video-frame analysis of bead trajectories is providing data on the relative localisation, dissipation and kinetics of traction forces.


Author(s):  
Deepak D. ◽  
Nitesh Kumar ◽  
Shreyas P. Shetty ◽  
Saurabh Jain ◽  
Manoj Bhat

The expensive nature of currently used materials in the soft robotic industry demands the consideration of alternative materials for fabrication. This work investigates the performance of RTV-2 grade silicone rubber for fabrication of a soft actuator. Initially, a cylindrical actuator is fabricated using this material and its performance is experimentally assessed for different pressures. Further, parametric variations of the effect of wall thickness and inflation pressure are studied by numerical methods. Results show that, both wall thickness and inflation pressure are influential parameters which affect the elongation behaviour of the actuator. Thin (1.5 mm) sectioned actuators produced 76.97% more elongation compared to thick sectioned, but the stress induced is 89.61 % higher. Whereas, the thick sectioned actuator (6 mm) showed a higher load transmitting capability. With change in wall thickness from 1.5 mm to 6 mm, the elongation is reduced by 76.97 %, 38.35 %, 21.05 % and 11.43 % at pressure 100 kPa, 75 kPa, 50 kPa and 25 kPa respectively. The induced stress is also found reduced by 89.61 %, 86.66 %, 84.46 % and 68.68 % at these pressures. The average load carrying capacity of the actuator is found to be directly proportional to its wall thickness and inflation pressure.


2013 ◽  
Vol 133 (4) ◽  
pp. 205-210
Author(s):  
Norihito Oshikawa ◽  
Tatsuya Tokunaga ◽  
Kazufumi Honda ◽  
Takuma Miyake ◽  
Tatsuya Sakoda ◽  
...  

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