The need for industrial surge protection

Today’s industrial and professional equipment is dependent upon microprocessors and other sensitive electronic equipment, increasing the world’s need for greater protection from electrical surges. At industrial sites, power surges wreak havoc on equipment, causing catastrophic failures, interrupting processes and causing equipment to prematurely age, leading to failure. However by deploying industrial surge protection, manufacturers can mitigate potential problems and keep their equipment and the related processes up and running reliably without disruption or damage due to surge-related events.

BRITEC’s full range of surge protective devices provides solutions which can provide a stable electrical environment and virtually eliminate the losses caused by electrical overvoltage events. Industrial SPD are trusted worldwide to protect sophisticated electrical equipment from damage caused by lightning surges, or large load switching occurring either in house or caused by industrial neighbors.

Surge protection basics

A surge protection device (SPD), previously known as a transient voltage surge suppressor (TVSS), is designed to absorb and divert high-current surges to ground and bypass your equipment. The backbone of every SPD is the metal oxide varistor (or MOV). The MOV is a solid-state device that normally has very high impedance. When the applied voltage suddenly exceeds the “breakdown voltage,” the MOV acts as a very high-speed switch and diverts the energy to ground.

Installation

Only surge protection which is properly sized and grounded can be successful in preventing equipment damage. For maximum protection, SPDs should be installed as close to the protected equipment as possible, and cable lengths should be as short and straight as possible to minimize the resistive path of the circuit to ground. Anything less than a low grounding and bonding impedance will cause surge energy to be diverted throughout the facility with potentially hazardous effects.

Summary

Although surges cannot be totally eliminated, they can be mitigated through surge protection solution thereby reducing their damaging effect. This leads to greater reliability and overall improved productivity. In this regard, surge protection really is an inexpensive form of electrical system insurance.