PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY
Surge protection in the era of digitisation Electrical engineering manufacturer, Phoenix Contact says it’s developed the world’s first intelligent system for surge protection, integrating the essential solution into the Internet of Things.
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URGE PROTECTION IS CRITICAL TO the smooth running of trains, because railway technology depends on highly sensitive electric and electronic systems. These systems require a high degree of availability in order to avoid delaying critical operational processes, and inducing high costs associated with downtimes and maintenance. Disruptions to the functioning of this technology, however, can be easily caused by a myriad of factors, such as weather events - especially lightning strikes, aging systems, or damage to conductors, interlocking components, modules or computer systems. With the ongoing digitisation of the rail industry becoming more and more comprehensive, applying to every component and system across the sector, there is now an intelligent system for surge protection. Phoenix Contact, which provides Surge Protection Devices (SPDs), has this year released a surge protection monitoring solution called “ImpulseCheck” which enables the continuous monitoring of the surge protection system’s electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and the
installed SPDs, and facilitates preventative maintenance in order to comprehensively reduce overall maintenance costs and increase the reliability of services. Phoenix Contact’s national marketing manager in Australia, John Ortika, spoke to Rail Express about the world first. “Products that we previously would have just installed and operated, we now want more information and more detailed information on them continuously. Are they still functioning at maximum capacity? Are they doing what they’re supposed to be doing? Is there potentially a failure down the track that we can cater for and remove before it actually happens?” ImpulseCheck monitors every single arrestor, detecting electromagnetic interference and surge currents on each active conductor, allocates a time stamp to the event, and then transfers the data to a cloud interface called “ProfiCloud”. In ProfiCloud, the state of health for each mode of protection is analysed based on the recorded events. “It’s the first solution on the market that ImpulseCheck transfers all data collected to the ‘ProfiCloud’.
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ISSUE 9 2019 | RAIL EXPRESS
www.railexpress.com.au
