Advantages of Zinc Oxide Surge Arrester:

Efficient performance: With extremely high nonlinear resistance characteristics, it can instantly absorb and release a large amount of electrical energy, effectively protecting electrical equipment from lightning strikes.

Stable and reliable: Resistors have stable volt ampere characteristics and are less affected by environmental factors such as temperature and humidity, ensuring long-term stable operation.

Gap free design: avoids equipment damage caused by gap discharge and improves the continuous operation capability of the equipment.

Strong overvoltage resistance: able to maintain a stable resistance value at high voltages, effectively protecting equipment from high voltage impacts.

Long service life: The lifespan of the resistor can generally reach more than 20 years, extending the service life of the equipment.

Easy maintenance: simple structure, stable operation, low maintenance workload, and reduced operating costs.

Fast action, large current capacity: Fast response, able to pass large currents, superior protection performance.

Residual low voltage and no freewheeling: It provides protection against various overvoltages without power frequency freewheeling, reducing energy loss.

Simple structure and small size: no series spark gap, suitable for large-scale automated production, low cost.

Good anti fouling performance: avoids the disadvantage of unstable discharge voltage in series spark gaps caused by external contamination of the ceramic sleeve.

Easy to make DC lightning arrester: DC continuous current does not pass through the natural zero crossing like power frequency continuous current, and it is difficult to manufacture DC lightning arrester with series gap.

Strong ability to withstand repetitive actions: only absorbs overvoltage energy, does not need to absorb freewheeling energy, and can withstand multiple lightning strikes.

Good pollution resistance: No series gap, avoiding the problem of unstable discharge voltage in the series spark gap caused by uneven pollution on the surface of the ceramic sleeve.

Good response characteristics to steep waves: no sparks, no discharge delay, especially suitable for protection of GIS gas insulated substations and DC systems.

Can be used for parallel expansion: MOA valve plates can be used for parallel expansion to reduce residual voltage.

Disadvantages of zinc oxide lightning arrester:

Long term exposure to operating voltage: Long term exposure to operating voltage without gaps can lead to significant leakage current, causing it to heat up or even explode.

Easy to be affected by moisture, leading to performance degradation: Ceramic bushing zinc oxide lightning arresters are prone to internal moisture, resulting in a high accident rate. The main cause of accidents is poor sealing, which leads to internal moisture degradation.

Explosion risk of porcelain bushing: After a malfunction, the internal air of the porcelain bushing lightning arrester rapidly expands due to the high temperature heating of the arc, generating a large pressure. Generally, the distribution type lightning arrester does not have a pressure release device, which poses a safety hazard.

Limited arc extinguishing ability: The arc extinguishing ability is related to the size of the continuous flow at the power frequency. If the pressure inside the pipe is too low, it is not enough to extinguish the arc. If the continuous flow is too high, the gas production will be too large, the pressure inside the pipe will be too high, and the pipeline will rupture; If the continuous flow is small, there will be too little gas production, and the arc extinguishing reflux ability is limited in scope.

Difficulty in insulation coordination with protected equipment: There is an external gap, making it difficult to achieve reasonable insulation coordination with the protected equipment. It is greatly affected by the environment and has the disadvantages of steep bolt second characteristic curves and high discharge dispersion.

Shielding wave generated after startup: Shielding wave will be generated after startup, threatening the insulation of coil equipment such as transformers.

Residual voltage may damage equipment: For oscillating overvoltage, the discharge circuit of the lightning arrester is connected in series with a resistor. If the residual voltage is greater than the insulation strength of the protected equipment, the greater the resistance, the lower the possibility of oscillation. However, when lightning current passes through the resistor and gap, a higher residual voltage may be generated, which may damage the equipment.