Sometimes people ask me how it was that I stumbled onto the idea of introducing a Journal devoted mainly to electrical insulators. My answer is that whenever technology is changing in any field, people begin looking for new sources of information. Therefore, once I became aware of how fast technical change was occurring in this industry, it seemed a reasonable assumption that there would be those interested to follow this change in a new publication.

Today, it is true to say that insulator technology is still evolving, with new or modified designs and materials still being tested and introduced for a variety of line and substation applications. At the same time, what is now becoming equally interesting is how insulator users worldwide are employing the possibilities offered by new technologies to create better designs and engineered solutions.

In some cases, users have embarked quite enthusiastically into the new technologies, seeing in the latest generation of insulators and insulating materials a solution to problems which could not be resolved before. In other cases, users are more cautious, seeing an opportunity but wondering whether or not there are performance issues which must still be addressed.

Both views are, of course, equally important and both are typically presented in the various articles published each year by INMR. This Issue is no exception, with feature articles which present differing perspectives on the latest insulator technologies and their applications.

Our editorial philosophy has always been that everyone benefits when information on new technologies and related operating experience is presented from a range of different perspectives - those of suppliers, those of users and those of researchers.

This brings me to the subject of the technical conferences organized by INMR once every two years. These conferences also aim to combine knowledge and experience in such a way as to make them most informative and valuable for all participants.

As talked about in this Issue, the next such conference - the 2001 WORLD INSULATOR CONGRESS will be held in Shanghai in mid-November of this year. The theme is: Applying New Technologies for Better Reliability and Lower Costs - the two key drivers for electric utilities in today’s environment. This promises to be a most interesting and worthwhile event. It will combine the technical knowledge of virtually all of the major suppliers of insulators and materials with a broad range of practical experience on the part of electric utilities and electrical equipment manufacturers from around the globe. Overlapping this will be the observations and findings of some of the leading international researchers in the field.

I very much hope that the rare coming together of so many of the experts and practitioners from across the globe will be a reason not to miss this special event.

Marvin L. Zimmerman

February 24, 2001