Abstract: As a supporting means for the safety protection of the live working in distribution network, the insulating equipment is of great importance to the safety of the workers due to its insulation characteristics along the surface. In this paper several common insulating shield appliance, surface discharge test was carried out. The surface discharge test uses a ball-rod electrode to simulate field operation conditions and observe the discharge path with a high-speed camera. The test results show that the material types of insulating masks have a great influence on the surface insulating properties, the insulating properties of rubber masks and plastic masks are close, and the surface insulating properties of resin masking utensils are lower. The structure of the thread umbrella skirt has no influence on the surface discharge voltage and does not enhance its insulation performance along the face. Considering the maximum operating voltage of 10kV distribution line is 11.5kV, the effective protection area of the insulating shielding device is the range of 5cm from the center of the surface of the shielding appliance to the edge.