This article explores the possibility of using polyolefin materials for composite insulator sheds. The transfer component (silicone oil or erucamide) is added into a polyolefin material to improve its hydrophobic properties. Results show that the silicone oil-modified polyolefin material (polyolefin-S) exhibited an obvious hydrophobicity transfer property. When the equivalent salt deposit density and nonsoluble deposit density are 0.1 and 0.5 mg/cm(2), respectively, the static contact angle increases from 75 degrees to 87 degrees as the silicone oil transfer time increases from 24 to 96 hr. Meanwhile, polyolefin-S exhibits high mechanical strength, hardness, volume resistivity, and surface resistivity values of 21.4 MPa, 62.6 HD, 1.7 x 10(15) omega m and 1.2 x 10(16) omega, respectively. Moreover, polyolefin-S shows excellent tracking and erosion resistance of 4.5 kV level in the inclined plane test. The results verify that the polyolefin material is a promising candidate material for the hard shed of composite insulators.
