Fabrication and Performance Evaluation of Zinc Oxide Varistors for the Arresters used for Station System

발변전소 피뢰기용 산화아연소자의 제작 및 성능평가

This paper presents the fabrication and performance evaluation of zinc oxide varistors for the arresters used for station system. ZnO varistors were fabricated with typical ceramic production methods and the structural and electrical characteristics were investigated. All varistors exhibited high density, which were in the range of $5.41{\sim}5.49g/cm^3$. In the electrical properties the reference voltage increased in the range of $4.410{\sim}5.250kV$ with increasing their thickness and the residual voltage exhibited the same trends as the reference voltage. In the long duration current impulse withstand test, E-2 and F-1 samples failed in the two and four shots, respectively, but E-1 and F-2 samples survived 18 shots during the test. Before and after this test, the variation ratio of residual voltage of E-1 and F-2 samples were -0.34% and 0.05%, respectively, which were in the acceptance range of 5%. According to the results of tests, it is thought that if the fabrication process such as insulating coating, sintering condition, and soldering method is improved, these ZnO varistors would be possible to apply to the station class arresters in the new future.