Spark Insulators, an ISO 9001:2008 certified company by TCL, is engaged in various fields of businesses like power sector, hotel industry, real estate with an annual turnover of Rs 300 crore, and also one of the promoters in VANPIC Ports and VANPIC Projects.

Sensing the technological changes well in time, the company decided upon enhancing its expertise to power sector and diversified into manufacturing of high performance silicon rubber polymer insulators for transmission and distribution lines ranging from 11 kV to 765 kV conforming to international specifications IEC 61109 with an improvement in mechanical and electrical characteristics. Spark Insulators aspires to become one of the leading players in this segment through continuous improvement in technology and product range by meeting the global standards.

The company is associated with Dongguan Gaoneng Electric Co Ltd of China as a Technology Collaborator, which is a major supplier of composite insulators ranging from 11 kV to 1200 kV - an approved vendor of Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) having supplied 20000 composite insulators of 400 kV.

The Board of Directors of the company comprises technocrats Mr Sana Satish Babu - Managing Director; Mr Pasupuleti Bhimudu - Executive Director; and Mr Sanjeeva Kumar Padala - Director. All three have rich experience in large corporates and projects. Mr Sana Satish Babu has over 18 years of experience in various fields like power sector, hotel industry, and real estate, and has floated a number of successful ventures both in India and abroad with an annual turnover of 300 crore. He is also one of the promoters in VANPIC Ports and VANPIC Projects.

Mr Pasupuleti Bhimudu has over 16 years of experience in India and abroad. He worked as a project in charge for various companies like Tecumseh Products India Ltd, Rane Group and TI Diamond Chain Ltd - Murugappa Group. He is also active in construction businesses and having enormous knowledge of the power industry.

Mr Sanjeeva Kumar Padala has over 15 years experience in transmission and distribution sectors. He is involved in steel plant maintenance and operation of induction furnaces with high voltage network, and has immense knowledge on loss reduction plans in both HV/LV net works and maintenance of distribution network.

Approvals

Spark insulators from 11 kV to 400 kV have been tested and approved for design test and type test as per IEC 61109 at Central Power Research Institute (CPRI), Bangalore. The only company in India to start 4 lines of production at a time, it has successfully developed insulators to cater to distribution and transmission lines. Within a short span the company has also been successful to get approved by many utilities, some of these being APEPDCL, APSPDCL, APNPDCL, etc.

Approvals from major power utilities are in place along with approvals from NTPC, NHPC and other EPC Contractors.

Production Facilities & Infrastructure

Spark Insulators has the latest designed machines such as injection moulding machines, crack detecting sensor crimping machines for manufacturing 11 kV to 765 kV silicon rubber insulators. The machinery is capable of producing world-class insulators in the range mentioned above, maintaining uniform thickness across the length and impenetrable to moisture and humidity thereby ensuring long service life. It also has a full fledged NABL accredited modern Extra High Voltage Testing Laboratory equivalent to laboratories like CPRI, to test up to 400 kV and even above, as per IEC standards, and IEC 61109 at Central Power Research Institute (CPRI), Bangalore.

Design, Manufacturing & Testing Facilities

These are the facilities, all in-house:

• Rubber Injection Moulding Machines with a capacity of 500 tonnes/ 12600 CC
• FRP manufacturing facility
• Micro Processor based control crimping machine with capacity 400 tonnes
• Universal tensile testing machine with bending moment testing set-up
• 200 kV/200 MA high voltage testing equipment
• Weather accelerator testing equipment (UV radiation chamber)
• Tracking and erosion testing equipment
• Hydrophobicity recovery testing equipment
• Thermal mechanical chamber (-50? to 70?C with 20-tonne hydraulic system)
• Remoter for silicone rubber testing
• Water diffusion set-up
• Glass content test set-up
• Hardness tester
• Volume resistivity
• Uniformity of zinc coating measuring equipment
• Dielectric strength test set-up, and
• Hydraulic press

The high voltage and mechanical testing facilities of the company helps to develop various categories of insulators required by the power industry while maintaining high quality standards of the products. Highly committed to the quality and performance of the product, the quality systems comprise the following:

• Inward inspection of all incoming materials as per relevant drawings, specifications before taking into stores
• In-process inspection and testing is conducted as per the standards and customer requirements
• Final testing on routine basis is carried out as per standard requirements, and
• Each insulator is subjected to the routine test as per relevant standard before dispatch.

Design & Construction of Spark 

Composite Polymer Insulators

The Spark Composite Polymer Insulator comprises a core material, end fittings and a silicone rubber insulating housing.

Core Rod: The Core Rod for composite insulator is a glass fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) rod. Glass fibres used are of boron free ECR (electrical and corrosion resistant) grade. When the glass fibre in FRP rod is boron free, it will not be affected by moisture and even acid. The FRP rod consists mainly of glass fibres positioned in a resin matrix so as to achieve maximum tensile strength. Resin bonded glass fibres not only provides mechanical strength, but also gives electrical insulation.

Housing and Weather Sheds: The Housing is external to the core rod and protects it from weather. Weather sheds are intended to increase the leakage (creepage) distance and to provide an interrupted path.

End Fittings: The Metal End Fittings are made of forged steel, malleable iron or cast iron with high tensile quality. All the fittings exposed to environment are galvanised and are then attached to core rod with high precision uniform compression process, which does not damage the core rod. The interface between end fitting and housing is sealed by silicone elastomer with permanent elasticity to protect it against pollution and moisture.

The products include various types of composite insulators ranging from 11 kV to 400 kV as per IEC specifications:

• 11 kV - 15 kV - 45 kN/70 kN insulator
• 33 kV - 36 kV - 70 kN/90 kN insulator
• 132 kV - 70 kN/ 90 kN/120 kN insulator
• 220 kV - 70 kN/90 kN/120 kN insulator, and
• 400 kV - 90 kN/120 kN/160 kN/210 kN insulators.

Salient Features

• Experienced R&D Product Development Team
• Meeting the requirements of IEC specifications/PGCIL standards & RDSO and any relevant international standards
• End-to-End facilities, from design to testing at one location
• NABL accredited modern Extra High Voltage Testing Laboratory equivalent to laboratories like CPRI, to test up to 400 kV and even above, and
• Sophisticated instrumentation and experienced personnel.

Garg Distributors Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad is the sole distributor for Spark Insulators. Tel: 040-23074040, 23074050. Fax: 91-40-23073599. Email: garg@gdpl.org