I picked up my first copy of IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine around 25 years ago, and it was like finding the picture for the jigsaw puzzle I was putting together. More than that, I saw there was a role for me in oil research that I could spend many years working on. At the time I was a new chemistry post-grad-uate starting work in the electricity supply industry and struggling with a project on transformer oil. I had been attracted to the project because I had worked in the field of oil research previously, having spent time formulating new engine oil products using, among other things, synthetic base oils and esters. However, I quickly found that the electricity supply industry was quite different from working in lubricants and that when it comes to oil, things change more slowly. I found it difficult to understand why synthetics were not already being embraced when they offered advantages over mineral oils.

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 社论


大约 25 年前，我拿起第一本 IEEE 电气绝缘杂志，这就像找到我正在拼凑的拼图游戏的图片一样。更重要的是，我发现我可以在石油研究领域发挥自己的作用，我可以花很多年的时间来从事这项工作。当时我是一名新的化学研究生，开始在电力供应行业工作，并在变压器油项目上苦苦挣扎。我之所以被这个项目所吸引，是因为我之前曾在石油研究领域工作过，花时间使用合成基础油和酯等来配制新的发动机油产​​品。然而，我很快发现电力供应行业与润滑油行业有很大不同，而当涉及到石油时，情况变化得更慢。我发现很难理解为什么合成油比矿物油具有优势时还没有被接受。