Hi everyone,

I’m an electrical engineer working at Minrong Electric Group (we manufacture high-voltage gear like vacuum circuit breakers, lightning arresters, and cold-shrink cable accessories). Over the years, I’ve seen some spectacular failures in the field, and I wanted to share a deep dive into something a lot of people misunderstand: cold-shrink termination breakdowns.

Often, when a 10kV or 35kV termination blows up, the immediate reaction is to blame the silicone rubber material. But through our failure analysis, the root cause is almost always invisible to the naked eye.

I recently put together some 3D animations and X-ray cutaways (attach your video/GIF here) to visualize the internal microscopic physical phenomena during a breakdown. Here is what's actually happening:

1. The Semi-Conductive Layer Trap: When stripping the semi-conductive layer, even a microscopic uneven cut or a tiny scratch on the primary insulation creates a massive electric field concentration.
2. Stress Cone Dynamics: The stress cone is supposed to relieve this, but if the cold-shrink tube isn't positioned with absolute precision, the geometric control of the electric field fails.
3. The Silent Breakdown: You get micro-discharges. It generates localized heating, carbonizes the surrounding insulation over months, and eventually leads to a catastrophic flashover.

We do similar microscopic breakdown simulations for things like VS1 vacuum circuit breaker closing failures (latch wear and spring fatigue are the silent killers there) and lightning arrester SPD bypasses. Visualizing these hidden faults has completely changed how we design our components at Minrong.

Thought you guys might find this visual breakdown interesting. If you have any questions about high-voltage insulation, switchgear mechanics, or want to share your own explosion stories, Ask Me Anything !
Feel free to check our website for more information about our cold shrink products and real-case feedback

minrongdianqi.com/cable-accessories。

Hello there , I had a transformer blow across my rd and in result , it’s sprayed my house , property , cars . Etc . The transformer oil came back negative for PCBs, but it’s filled with a product called Hyvolt II. How you guys handle this situation ? I do have 3 small children . And I own the property and house . Thank you for any information.

I Built a Custom Motorcycle Ignition Coil From Scratch

I built this custom ignition coil using an EE-type core and enamelled copper wire. The project involved winding the primary and secondary coils, insulating each layer, sealing the assembly with resin, and testing it on a motorcycle.

It was a time-consuming project, but I wanted to explore how much of an ignition coil could be built from scratch.

I'm sharing the finished build and testing process for anyone interested in motorcycle electronics, ignition systems, and DIY engineering.

What do you think of this design?

Full build video: [mrwolfdiy YouTube channel]

How to make an anthenna for sstc like how long and how far away from secondary, I am using the schematic above just powered with 30V DC instead of 70V DC

Hopefully not breaking the rules but our company is hiring - https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/ipxpower/jobs/4292492009

Very surprised the battery crate didnt end up upside-down

Our production line keeps hitting walls whenever we need to source hard to find semiconductors and obsolete ICs. We're a small CEM in the Midlands and I'm trying to figure out which independent distributors sourcing from China are actually worth the risk. Had a bad run last year with a no-name supplier on a batch of STM32 variants, so now I'm being more careful about who we actually run RFQs through. Wondering if anyone here has a reliable go-to for electronic components from China that ships to the UK, handles smaller quantities without insane transaction costs and has some kind of vetting process for excess inventory stock .

arc starts from 2.5+ inches. Current is estimated to be 20ma almost.

I have a custom zvs driver with IGBTs, variac driven rectifier and a huge sony projection crt flyback

I love this hobby. Even though its running at 25khz, this is lethal.

Its a 6+6 turn set up immeresed in oil.

Thinking about a half bridge driver in the future with a gate drive modulator to adjust the frequency better.

I'm still amateur I'm going to build my first sstc in next 2 weeks(class E 2MHz I think) and I have a 10cm diamater, 30cm high, 245kHz secondary I want to use for some DRSSTC, I want it to have simple but reliable driver, I will power it from 230V rectified mains (320V DC) , I think that halfbrigde one should be enough for me, I would prefer regulated interrupter than OCD because of simplicity and I'm completly new to IGBTs (any recomandactions), I have a 50MHz 2 channel digital osciloscope

Realmente no sabía dónde compartír eso esto

subí con guantes pero no eran unos guantes dieléctricos no para este tipo fue descargado con un cable de acero previamente pero aún así sentí un pinchazo no se si debería ir al médico aun no tengo experiencia por eso pregunto

Hey all just got done tearing apart my second microwave, I was thinking about maybe making a VVTC not sure tho, both transformers are 2.2kv roughly at 50hz and half an amp. I also have a smaller 4kv 40khz transformer although it is kinda useless. Anyone have any advice on what type of vaccum tube I need and where to source one? Or maybe I can FBR it and get some crazy DC voltage who knows? anyone know what type of DC caps I would need for the 2 transformers in series?

So I've done hv stuff before. The oldest flyback that I've come across and used was from I think the 70s. I was so excited to finally be able to find an AC flyback from the late 40s-early 50s. But I'm slightly stumped. I can tell where the secondary coil(s?) are. It seems there's two? And I can tell that what I believe to be the resonant cap is no good, so do I need to replace that? Can I just remove and bridge the connection? Also, im noticing a 3 tapped primary??? I think anyways... And it looks like winding my own primary is out of the question too, huh? Please send help😭

It didn't work. The transistor heated up and nothing happened. And yes, I made sure the coil windings were in the right direction. Is a slayer exciter not a great idea for a beginner project? Are slayer exciters known for being finicky? Can any of you relate?

My control box coming along containing metering, circuit breakers, emi filters, safety switches and a speed control unit for the rotary spark gap. Also my variac for ramping up the power

My friend and I are building a van de graaff generator for a science fair, inspired in the Plasma Chanel video, using nylon and PTFE free rooling tubes, and a belt made of neoprene swiming suit fabric. After the first inicial test, we could not make any spark or static at all. Is there any problems with the materials? Or any advice from someone experienced with this kind of build?

I used a closed loop system to allow anything to be connected

Im trying to design a ZVS driver to get high voltage but i want ed to do a simulation first so i burn less components, which similators you gys recomend, i tried falstad but dosen't work and ltspice on one circuit works on oneother it dosent