Electrical Insulation Challenges for Rotating Machines Used on Future Electric Ship

The ship power system operates in an environment that is different enough from the norm to stimulate some action.  The following areas are among those that merit attention:

• Standards used for land-based insulation systems are not likely to provide good guidance for ship insulation system design.  In general, standards codify experiences, a key design component.  The standards developers tend to have significant experience in land-based applications, but not in the marine environment.
• There is a need to specify the electrical, thermal, and mechanical environment that a ship power system will experience and to determine how well that environment has been explored by existing materials research and standard tests.  Component suppliers will continue to be plagued with problems until this situation is rectified.

A paper addressing the above areas, “Electrical insulation challenges for rotating machines used on future electric ships,” written by Robert Hebner, was presented at the 28th Electrical Insulation Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, in October 2007. For more information, please contact Robert Hebner.