International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

Design of high-voltage insulators with a capacity of 12 kV and 24 kV according to standard specifications and determination of the mechanical properties in virtual environment, as well as verification and validation of the results in laboratory conditions was the aim of this paper. The composition of the insulators was 50 vol. % epoxy resin and 50 vol. % SiO2. Based on the physical and mechanical parameters of high-voltage insulators, 3D models were generated to correlate with them. Virtual simulations of the optimized models were performed by using SolidWorks software based on Finite Element Method. In order to re-examine the results, laboratory tests on physical specimens for determination of tensile, compression and three-point bending strength were conducted. The simulations were positively verified and gave promising results. The research conclusions show that the simulations in virtual environment provide easier and faster design and development of high-voltage  insulators, which is of great importance for power transmission network industry.

Forging is an experience-oriented technology. The physical phenomena that describe the forging operations are difficult to express with quantitative relationships. In order to avoid the trail-and-error method, we use numerical simulations for studying the forging process. With the help of these simulations, the engineers are able to uncover the potential defects which may happen during the forging process. Concurrent Engineering (CE) helps in making the forging process more effective. In the CE system, each modification of the product represents a taxonomical relationship between specifications, outputs, and the concept it represents. In the study, the forging process of a disc shaped part is analysed. Thanks to numerical simulations it is determined that the dimensions of the billet are larger than needed. This resulted in overfilling the flash of the tool, thus the simulation was unsuccessful. After correcting the dimensions of the billet, the simulation ran with no interruptions.