Page 20 - Energize June 2021

NEWS

Eaton’s arc fault protection system now available in South Africa

tate of the art modular safety system in numerous ways. In its basic arc protection version, it serves as an arc fault monitoring system
guarantees the highest degree of and is connected to the circuit breakers. This ensures improved personnel protection without the
Spersonnel and assembly protection, necessity of additional parameterization.
with a total arc mitigation time of less than The next level provides enhanced arc fault protection, which is achieved by means of
2 ms. connection to the circuit breakers, the ignition module as well as to an arc quenching device,
Eaton, the global power management also supplied by Eaton. This facilitates comprehensive personnel and assembly protection; the
company, has launched the ARCON 3G arc corresponding setup is entered via the display.
fault protection system in South Africa to In comparison to the previous configurations, the complex arc fault protection covers not only
reduce the risk of harmful and costly arc one, but up to five zones. The connection scheme corresponds to that of the enhanced arc fault
flash incidents in LV switchgear assemblies protection system and is configured by means of a software solution.
that could result in injury of personnel and “Exposure to arc flash incidents continues to be a substantial cause of injury and death among
damage to property. workers, and a major cause of the negative effects that affect system availability and continuity for
Arc fault events can mostly be traced power critical operations within the electrical industry,” says Makwana. “It is our duty to ensure
back to working under voltage with personnel and assembly protection through ongoing research and development of the best arc
approximately two thirds of all accidents fault mitigation and protection systems.”
occurring in the course of service or ARCON 3G’s high-quality stainless-steel housing enables best electromagnetic compatibility.
maintenance work, for example when a With an ambient temperature range suitable for operation from -40 to +70°C, it is also ideal for
tool is suddenly turned into a conductive multiple utilisation scenarios, including the process industry or data centres.
foreign body. The consequence is an almost The low mounting depth is another striking and immediately visible feature. Together with
explosive expansion of the arc fault, which the separately executed display module, which simultaneously complies with the protection rating
can result in the ejection and deformation of IP55 in accordance with the xEnergy series, this results in maximum flexibility with regard to
equipment parts as well as in fires. installation in the switchgear assembly.
It has been proven that, depending The flexibility extends to the ignition module, also executed separately, which allows for
upon selectivity, up to 300 ms may pass placement of the master independent of the incoming section. An individual supply voltage for
before the main switch identifies the fault the light detection modules is not required.
and severs the connection. For a person “With the continuous self-monitoring function and a total arc mitigation time of less than
standing in front of the device this can be two milliseconds, ARCON 3G is the undisputed leader with regard to personnel and assembly
life-threatening. protection,” says Makwana.
Additionally, a fire caused by an arc fault
may not only lead to significant damage of Four steps to safely control an arc fault
the installation itself, but should it spread Detection
then adjacent infrastructure elements An arc fault can be detected by means of two separate tripping criteria. An arc fault produces
could also be affected. For operators this an overcurrent that can be detected by means of measuring current transformers. The second
means revenue losses due to downtime as detection criterion is the extremely bright light emitted by an arc fault, which can be detected
well as corresponding component repair or using fibreoptic sensors. Some of the intense light emitted by the arc enters the core of the
replacement costs. fibreoptic loop in a radial manner, which acts as a signal that can then be evaluated at the receiver
“ARCON 3G protects man and machine, end of the sensor. Nuisance tripping due to flashes or welding arcs can be prevented by evaluating
even if the system is in a non-operational both signals together.
state when being worked on by a technician,”
says Kamogelo Makwana, Low Voltage (LV)
Product Manager at Eaton South Africa. “This
allows us to guarantee the highest degree of
personnel and assembly protection.”
ARCON 3G is an effective modular and
compact system that detects an electrical
arc caused by a short circuit through a
combination of light and current detection by
using optical sensors and measuring current
transformers, with a total arc mitigation time
of less than 2 ms. It continuously monitors
itself and triggers an alert in case of a change
in state. Such events are highlighted on a
multilingual display, and a corresponding
notification can also be submitted to a
control centre by means of a hard-wired line.
Its modular design means that the
ARCON 3G system can be used and expanded

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