Patent ID: 7061253

Claim:
A test system for testing polymer insulators, comprising: a grading shield that is oriented about a top region of a polymer insulator; a power supply controller configured to receive power from a power supply and configured to regulate a voltage received from the power supply into a regulated voltage; a power supply transformer configured to couple to a high voltage lead of the polymer insulator and the grading shield so that the regulated voltage received from the power supply controller is transformed to an applied voltage that is applied to the high voltage lead and the grading shield; a signal digitizer configured to receive information corresponding to detected leakage current from a ground lead of the polymer insulator and configured to generate a digital signal corresponding to a detected leakage current; and a processing system configured to detect the digital signal and determine a resistive current component corresponding to the leakage current, such that: when the resistive current component of the leakage current is greater than a predefined criteria when the applied voltage is applied, the processing system determines that the polymer insulator has failed the test; and when the resistive current component of the leakage current is less than or equal to the predefined criteria when the applied voltage is applied, the processing system determines that the polymer insulator has passed the test.