Laser cleaning of contamination on the underside surface of glass insulators

One of the important measures to prevent insulator flashover accidents is to regularly or irregularly clean the surface contaminations of insulators. Due to the irregular and unique shape of insulators, current methods struggle to effectively clean contamination on the underside surface of insulators, resulting in cleaning blind spots. Owing to the transparency of glass, laser cleaning can address this challenge, with the laser radiating from the top surface of the glass insulator to clean contamination on the underside surface. Simulation and experimental studies on laser cleaning of contamination on the underside surface of glass insulators are presented in this paper. The temperature and stress at the glass-contaminant interface were found to be positively correlated with laser power, while negatively correlated with scanning speed, spot radius, and filling spacing. The higher the contamination level, the greater the laser power required for effective cleaning. At a scanning speed of 4 m/s, the laser cleaning power thresholds for contaminants of class c, d, and e are determined to be 120 W, 130 W, and 160 W, respectively. For cleaning contaminants on the underside surface, to ensure safe cleaning, the laser scanning speed should be greater than 2 m/s. The research findings provide technical support for the engineering application of laser cleaning for contamination in blind spots on the underside surface of glass insulators.