What Is Transformer Oil Made Up Of?

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Julii Brainard answered
It's a very refined "mineral oil", that is stable at high temperatures even after chronic use. Its purpose is to insulate and cool electronic parts.

Mineral oil is a by-product of making petroleum (gasoline). It is transparent and colorless, and produced in mass quantities as part of the process to make vehicle-fuel, which makes mineral oil itself fairly cheap to buy. It comes in different "grades", some of these are suitable for application on the skin (in moisturisers, or as baby oil used in the bath), and others are even edible (used as a laxative and a filler in some food stuffs produced in China and Canada).

Heavier grades are suitable as transformer oil and as general lubricants for machine and other metal working parts. Some mineral oils are suitable as cleaners and solvents.

Chemically, mineral oils mostly consist of carbon-heavy alkanes (compounds that are made up of just carbon and hydrogen molecules).

Mineral oil is extremely resistant to conducting electricity but conducts heat out easily; hence its use (rather than something else) for insulating and cooling tiny parts in electronic gadgets.

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