Electrical Protection For Industry

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Electrical protection is a growing necessity for businesses of the “industrial” type, as operations become increasingly computerized. Many people think of the images from the industrial revolution in America when they picture an industrial business. Large machines belching steam and smoke may have been how an industrial facility used to look. Still, today they have become increasingly technological in an attempt to improve the functionality of operations. This is simply because the more computerized and automated a business can be, the more inexpensively it can continue to provide the product or service it is designed to. Modern industrial companies look more like high-tech firms than you would ever expect, even though they operate in harsh conditions and are frequently isolated in their locations. This increasing reliance upon computers and circuit-driven equipment to streamline operations has a downside, as power surges can negatively impact the bottom line. These sensitive pieces of equipment need to be repaired or replaced when there are power surges. Only through minimizing the damage directly associated with these events can operations be truly optimized. Power surges come in several forms, resulting from several occurrences. Each occurrence has a different methodology to thwart the damage and uses various forms of equipment and devices to accomplish that goal.

Ongoing switching errors cause overvoltage, which in turn causes the degradation of circuitry over time. These overvoltages can occur every time a piece of equipment is turned off or on, resulting in a small surge of power. These excesses in voltage are generally not enough to achieve perceivable damage but ultimately shorten the life span of that piece of equipment if they go unchecked. The installation of voltage limiting equipment can reduce this degradation by consistently monitoring the level of power flowing to a device, then gapping or diverting that flow if it exceeds a certain level. Voltage limiting equipment continually assures that the power flow to the equipment is within the safe range and lengthens the operational life of that equipment. Extending the active life span saves money and reduces downtime.

Lightning strikes and significant power surges will oftentimes destroy equipment, especially at the strike point itself. Because of this danger, other equipment is used to attract the strike to themselves instead of the power lines that feed components or the components themselves. The idea is to prevent strikes from happening near the system and allow the strike to be safely diverted to earth without any impact on the nearby system. Through lightning attractants like overhead shields and lightning rods and surge protection devices installed redundantly along the pathways, electricity can flow, electrical protection for the installation can be maximized. Of course, there is almost no expectation of a perfect system that will see no damage, but through minimization of expected damage, the bottom line can be improved. This is the crux of electrical protection for industry.