Contamination of insulators is a common phenomenon in electric power system

when severe may cause flashover and lead to large area and long time insulator power failure.So the insulator flashover has become one of the most threatening factors for power system safety.The detection methods used now have inherent defects and limitations

such as infrared detection technology has a blind area and can not detect the early failure.This paper studied on how to use UV imaging device to detect insulation status of insulators.The research used solid-layer method to simulate contaminated insulators on line

upraised voltage on insulator string through conductor pole

and used CoroCAM504 ultraviolet imaging camera to observe the UV images of its corona discharge.The results showed that there is a good corresponding relationship between the maximum value of photon number and leakage current.And using ultraviolet imaging device can detect insulators whose contaminated grade is higher than grade a at the high environmental humidity

such as drizzle and brume.The results provided a certain reference for the practical applications of ultraviolet imaging device.The spot example is also proved the validity of the UV imaging detection.