A new concept of polyimide electrical insulation for superconducting cables of accelerator magnets was developed in the last years. Its enhanced He II permeability allows a significant improvement of the heat extraction from the coil. This cable insulation concept is used for the quadrupole magnet prototype for the insertion region of the High Luminosity - Large Hadron Collider project. It aims at pushing the limits of Nb-Ti technology to withstand high heat deposition. Cable samples wrapped with the new insulation scheme were characterized from the thermal standpoint, as well as from the electrical and mechanical ones. In particular, heat transfer measurements from insulated cables towards the helium cooling bath were performed in a coil-like configuration. Various wrapping schemes were tested in different mechanical conditions. The paper summarizes the main results of these investigations.