Anhydride-cured bisphenol-A epoxy resin is widely used in the support, insulation and sealing key components of electrical and electronic equipment due to their excellent comprehensive performance. However, overheating and breakdown faults of epoxy resin-based insulation occur frequently under conditions of large current carrying and multiple voltage waveforms, which seriously threaten the safe and stable operation of the system. The curing regime, including mixture ratio and combination of curing time and temperature, is an important factor to determine the microstructure of epoxy resin, and also directly affects its macro performances. In this paper, the evolution of curing kinetic models of anhydride-cured epoxy resin was introduced to determine the primary curing regime. The influences of curing regime on the insulation performance were reviewed considering various mixture ratios and combinations of curing time and temperature. The curing regime-dependent microstructure was discussed and attributed to the mechanisms of insulation performance.
Keywords: anhydride; bisphenol-A epoxy resin; curing regime; electrical and electronic equipment; insulation performance.