1. Introduction: Relay/fuse/breaker is used as a safety device in every electrical installation. This prevents fire hazard when an electrical short circuit is triggered. These switchgears work below certain peak amplitude of current rating. If it crosses that limit then dielectric insulationgets broken and it opens up the closed contact points to provide the electrical isolation from incoming supply. 2. Common causes of relay/fuse/breaker failure: a. High peak amplitude of the phase current that the device is carrying b. Presence of high current harmonics( Measure with MachineSense PA ) which indirectly increases peak amplitude of the phase current. Effect of...

PLC is at the heart of SCADA and control system in the manufacturing plants. If the factory power distribution is designed poorly or if the factory runs large VFDs or DC drives motors, PLCs can burn out frequently or will lose memory quite often. To understand this, we have to look at the power supply mechanism of PLC. Typically it is 24V DC or 220/110V AC to DC SMPS. In either of the cases, if AC input power is corrupt beyond a certain limit, electronics components of the PLC can be damaged easily. Permanent memory can be reset. Typically, 24V...

1. Introduction: Stator coil burning is one of the most common motor failures in the factory. Since the invention of AC motors at the end of 19th century, systematic innovations improved the quality of metal alloys of the coil. However, by beginning of the 21th century, motor coil failure returned as one of the biggest nuisance because of rising harmonics contents in the line which is a result of introducing more vector drives and LEDs to save energy. Coil failure on critical machines can drag down productivity to a large extent. Given meteoric rise of harmonics in the factory power...

Introduction Electrical power. It’s marvelous, but mysterious. And, because it runs just about everything in your plant, it’s also one of your major costs. Poor power quality has become a very serious problem in many industrial facilities, and a major underutilized source of cost reduction and economic advantage. The Electric Power Research Institute estimates that poor power quality costs American industry up to $188 billion per year in direct costs as well as lost productivity. That’s equivalent to the budgets of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin put together. In fact, there isn’t another cost reduction potential in industrial plants that comes close...

Harmonics, the Unknown Assassin of Your Electric Power Line! You’re saving power by LED and Vector Drives, but… You have recently upgraded all of the office lights to LEDs in your building, using approximately 50% less electricity than traditional incandescent, fluorescent and halogen options. You’re confident that this will save you 5-10% of your total utility bills, but you’re also noticing that office laptops don’t last as long they are supposed to. Exhaust fans and HVAC systems have started failing at an alarming rate, while servers are rebooting more frequently in the server room. You’re probably content with the fact...