What’s new in the IEEE 43 insulation resistance testing standard?
“
It has changed from “IEEE Recom-
mended Practice for Testing Insulation
Resistance of Rotating Machinery” to
“Recommended Practice for Testing
Insulation Resistance of Electric Ma-
chinery.” The reason for the change was
to use the more prevalent IEEE term
for motors and generators. Significant
changes to clauses of the standard that
affect service center repairs and testing
are described in this article.
Polarization index
A major change in clause 5.4, titled
By Tom Bishop, P.E.
“Polarization index readings,” affects
EASA Senior Technical Support Specialist
random winding tests. The relevant
text now states, “This test may not ap-
Editor’s Note: PDFs of this article are
available in English and Spanish in the
ply to small random winding machines
“Resource Library” of www.easa.com.
since the absorption current IA becomes
negligible in a matter of seconds (see
l l l l l Annex A for further discussion).” In
Annex A, the standard acknowledges
The Institute of Electrical and that in random windings, “the absorp-
Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standard tion current may decay to nearly zero
for insulation resistance testing of mo- in 2 min–3 min,” still far short of the
tor and generator windings that was
10-minute duration prescribed for the
published in 2002 has been revised. polarization index (PI) test. The prior
The 2013 edition was published in edition of the standard focused on form
March 2014. coil windings in this clause and did not
The first change in the new docu- specifically address random windings.
ment is a slight change in the title. The significance of the change is that it
makes clear that in many
Table 1. Temperature correction factors for
thermosetting insulation systems. if not most cases, the PI
test is not applicable to
random windings. There-
fore it would not provide
Temperature °C (°F) Kt useful information, could
create confusion between
10 (50) 0.66 end users and those per-
15 (59) 0.71 forming the test, and
would essentially be a
20 (68) 0.76 time-waster if applied.
25 (77) 0.82 Regarding the PI of
DC machine armature
30 (86) 0.88 windings, a sentence
in clause 12.2.1 has the
35 (95) 0.94
following statement:
40 (104) 1.00 “A polarization index
test is not applicable
45 (113) 1.24 to DC armatures that
50 (122) 1.52 have an exposed cop-
per commutator that is
55 (131) 1.86 by necessity not encap-
60 (140) 2.25 sulated in insulation.”
Electrical Apparatus Service Association, Inc. • Copyright © 2016 • www.easa.com • April 2016
T he f irst change in
th e n e w doc u m e nt i s a
slight change in the ti-
tle. It has changed from
‘IEEE Recommended
P r a c t i c e f o r Te s t i n g
Insulation Resistance of
Rotating Machiner y’ to
‘Recommended Practice
f o r Te s t i n g I n s ul at i o n
R e s i s t a n c e of E l e c t r i c
Machinery.’ The reason for
the change was to use the
more prevalent IEEE term
for motors and genera-
tors. Significant changes
to clauses of the standard
that affect service center
repairs and testing are de-
”
scribed in this article.
Thus the PI test does not apply to
conventional armatures.
Note: The minimum PI value
remains 2.0 for windings with an insu-
lation system thermal rating of class B
(130° C) or higher. Similarly, the 5000
megohm rule remains unchanged.
That is, a winding with an insulation
resistance value of 5000 megohms does
not need to be PI tested.
Temperature correction
For well over half a century, the
insulation resistance (IR) versus tem-
perature characteristic given in IEEE
43 has followed the simple rule that
the IR value doubles for every 10° C
decrease in winding temperature, and
conversely that the IR value is halved
for every 10° C increase in winding
temperature. However, clause 6.3 of
this new edition provides two tem-
perature correction factors, one of
which has two distinct formulas for the
correction. Windings are now differen-
tiated as being either “thermoplastic”
Continued on Page 2
1
What’s new in the IEEE 43 insulation resistance testing standard?
Continued From Page 1

or “thermosetting.” Thermoplastic Table 2. Megohms at various temperatures versus 100 megohms at 40° C.
insulation windings are those with
asphaltic systems and other insulation
systems that were used prior to the
Thermosetting Thermoplastic
early 1960s. Thermosetting insula-
tion windings appeared beginning in Temperature Kt Megohms Kt Megohms
the late 1960s and include epoxy and
polyester based systems. 10 0.66 152 0.125 800
U n f o r t u n a t e l y, t h e p r i o r
“10 degree” rule applies to thermo- 15 0.71 141 0.177 566
plastic windings, which are relatively 20 0.76 132 0.250 400
rare since they date back more than
5 decades. The “rule” for the much
25 0.82 122 0.354 283
more prevalent thermosetting insu- 30 0.88 114 0.500 200
lation systems is expressed by two
35 0.94 106 0.707 141
slightly complicated formulas. One
formula covers insulation tempera- 40 1.00 100 1.000 100
tures from 10° C to less than 40° C, 45 1.24 81 1.414 71
and the other formula addresses in-
sulation temperatures from 40° C to 50 1.52 66 2.000 50
less than 85° C. These formulas are 55 1.86 54 2.828 35
given below.
Formula for temperatures from 60 2.25 44 4.000 25
10° C to less than 40° C:
Kt = exp [-1245 {(1/(T+273) - (1/313)}] Kt = factor to multiply T by to obtain tion for this apparent inconsistency is
(Equation 1) insulation resistance corrected to 40° C. provided in a note in IEEE 43 that reads
as follows: “[Equation 2 above] and
Formula for temperatures from Table 1 illustrates the variation in
[Equation 1 above] are approximations
40° C to less than 85° C: the Kt factor versus a range of tempera-
and could lead to significant errors if
tures. Use of the table is a faster and
used to calculate insulation resistance
Kt = exp [-4230 {(1/(T+273) - (1/313)}] simpler process for estimating Kt than
at temperatures outside the range from
(Equation 2) the exact method of using a formula.
10º C to 60º C.”
Note that Table 1 (on Page 3) has
Where: To illustrate the effect of the tem-
a range from 10° C to 60° C, whereas
T = Temperature (degrees C) at which perature correction factor using the new
the range given in the formulas is from
insulation resistance was measured. 10° C to less than 85° C. The explana- Continued on Page 3

Table 3. Minimum insulation resistance values for various windings at 40° C. Differences in values for armatures are highlighted
in blue text.

Minimum insulation Test specimen [2013 edition] Test specimen [2000 edition]
resistance (megohms)
IR1 min = kV + 1 For most windings made before about For most windings made before about
1970, all field windings, and others not 1970, all field windings, and others not
described below described below
IR1 min = 100 For most ac windings built after about For most dc armature and ac windings
1970 (form wound coils) built after about 1970 (form wound
coils)
IR1 min = 5 For most machines with random-wound For most machines with random-
stator coils and form-wound coils rated wound stator coils and form-wound
below 1kV and dc armatures coils rated below 1 kV

Electrical Apparatus Service Association, Inc. • Copyright © 2016 • www.easa.com • April 2016 2
What’s new in the IEEE 43 insulation resistance testing standard?
Continued From Page 2
standard versus the prior version, here
is an example. The insulation resistance
of a winding is 160 megohms with a
winding temperature of 20° C (68° F).
The base temperature for insulation
resistance is 40° C (104° F). Using the old
method, we would halve a lower value
to obtain the IR value at a temperature
that is 10° C higher. In this case we need
to do that twice, halving the 20° C value
to obtain the 30° C value, and halving
the resulting 30° C value to obtain the
value at the 40° C base temperature.
Mathematically we are multiplying ½
by ½, meaning that we are multiply-
ing the 20° C value by ¼ to obtain the
equivalent 40° C value. Thus the 160
megohm value at 20° C is equivalent to
40 megohms (160/4) at 40° C.
Next, we convert the measurement
using the new standard. The measure-
Electrical Apparatus Service Association, Inc. • Copyright © 2016 •
ment temperature is 20° C and from
Table 1 (on Page 4) the conversion
factor is 0.76. The measured insulation
resistance of 160 megohms multiplied
by 0.76 is equal to 122 megohms. Thus
the insulation resistance corrected to
40° C is 122 megohms. Note that this
value is much higher than the result
using the old method. Table 2 (on
Page 4) illustrates the difference in
results from each method based on a
final result of 100 megohms at 40° C.
For more details on temperature
correction, see the July 2013 Currents
article, “Revisiting insulation resis-
tance temperature correction.”
Minimum insulation resistance
Included in clause 12.3 is a table
labeled “Recommended minimum
insulation resistance values at 40° C
www.easa.com • April 2016
(all values in MΩ).” The significant
change in the table is that the minimum
insulation resistance for armatures
has changed from 100 megohms to 5
megohms. The rationale for the change
was recognition that the exposed bare
copper of the commutator has a lim-
iting effect on insulation resistance,
regardless of winding type. Table 3
(on Page 4) provides a comparison of
the IEEE 43 2013 edition and the 2000
edition minimum insulation resistance
values for various winding types. Note
that the levels for minimum insulation
resistance listed in the first column are
the same for both editions. Also, the
changes related to armatures are further
illustrated by the use of blue text. l
3