Outdoor Termination Upgrade at a Cement Works

Client Background

A cement works was suffering repeated flashovers on the outdoor 11 kV terminations feeding its raw mill and kiln drives. The terminations had been installed with the standard two rain sheds per phase supplied in a generic outdoor kit.

Project Challenge

Stop the flashovers on a site where dust deposition is continuous and a cleaning regime cannot keep up.

Customer Pain Points

• Continuous dust deposition building a conducting film between cleaning cycles
• Generic outdoor kits supplied with a shed count sized for a normal site
• Flashovers stopping production not just tripping a feeder
• Terminations electrically sound so a rebuild was hard to justify

Our Solution

Shed count was recalculated against the site's actual pollution class and raised from two to five per phase. Additional Y3 sheds were retrofitted over the existing terminations. Where a termination showed surface erosion the outer C101 non tracking layer was replaced before the sheds were fitted.

Manufacturing Process

Sheds molded from the non tracking compound family with factory applied mastic collars. C101 supplied in cut lengths for the terminations that needed a new outer layer.

Supply Chain Coordination

One shipment covering all terminations plus spares. Delivered ahead of the planned kiln shutdown.

Quality Control

Tracking and erosion resistance to ASTM D2303 and colour fastness to IEC 60684-3 verified per lot.

Final Result

Retrofitting was completed during a single kiln shutdown. Flashover events on the upgraded terminations stopped. The site now specifies five sheds per phase as standard for any new outdoor termination.

Customer Benefit

A production stopping fault eliminated by changing one variable that a generic kit had set wrong for the site.