Electricity and Control July 2021

DRIVES, MOTORS + SWITCHGEAR : PRODUCTS + SERVICES

Arc fault protection in less than two milliseconds

Global power management company Eaton, has launched the ARCON ® 3G arc fault protection system in South Africa. This has been developed to reduce the risk of dangerous and costly arc flash incidents in low voltage (LV) switchgear assemblies which can result in injuries to personnel and damage to property. Arc fault events can most often be traced back to working under voltage with about two thirds of all acci- dents occurring in the course of service or maintenance work – for example, when a tool suddenly and uninten- tionally becomes a conductive instrument. The con- sequence is an almost explosive expansion of the arc fault, which can result in the ejection and deformation of equipment parts as well as fires. It has been proven that, depending on selectivity, up to 300 milliseconds may pass before the main switch identifies the fault and severs the connection. For a person standing in front of the device this can be life- threatening. Additionally, a fire caused by an arc fault might dam- age not only the installation itself, but also adjacent in- frastructure elements. For operators, this means revenue losses due to downtime as well as corresponding com- ponent repair or replacement costs. Kamogelo Makwana, LV Product Manager at Eaton South Africa says, “ARCON ® 3G protects man and ma- chine, even if the system is in a non-operational state when being worked on by a technician. This allows us to guarantee the highest degree of personnel and assem- bly protection.” ARCON ® 3G is a modular and compact system that detects an electrical arc caused by a short circuit through a combination of light and current detection, us- ing optical sensors and measuring current transformers. It has a total arc mitigation time of less than two millisec- onds. 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 notifica- tion can also be submitted to a control centre via a hard- wired line.

This facilitates comprehensive personnel and assembly protection; the corresponding setup is entered via the display. In comparison to these configurations, the complex arc fault protection covers up to five zones. The connec- tion scheme corresponds to that of the enhanced arc fault protection system and is configured using a soft- ware solution. “Exposure to arc flash incidents continues to be a substantial cause of injury and death among workers, and a major cause of the negative effects that affect sys- tem availability and continuity for power critical opera- tions in the electrical industry,” says Makwana. “Our aim is to ensure personnel and assembly protection through ongoing research and development of the best arc fault mitigation and protection systems.” ARCON ® 3G’s high quality stainless steel housing en- ables best electromagnetic compatibility. With an oper- ating temperature range from -40 to +70°C, it is suitable for various applications, including process industries or data centres. The low mounting depth is also a valuable feature. Together with the separately executed display module, which complies with the IP55 protection rating, in ac- cordance with the xEnergy series, this provides for max- imum flexibility with regard to installation in the switch- gear assembly. The flexibility extends to the ignition module, also executed separately, which allows for placement of the master independently of the incoming section. An indi- vidual supply voltage for the light detection modules is not required. “With its continuous self-monitoring function and a total arc mitigation time of less than two milliseconds, ARCON ® 3G takes the lead for personnel and assembly protection,” says Makwana.

For more information contact Eaton. Visit: www.eaton.com

The modular design means that the ARCON ® 3G system can be used and expanded in numerous ways. In its basic arc protection version, it serves as an arc fault monitoring system and is connect- ed to the circuit breakers. This en- sures improved personnel protec- tion without the need for additional parameterisation. The next level provides en- hanced arc fault protection, which is achieved by connection to the circuit breakers, the ignition mod- ule as well as to an arc quenching device, also supplied by Eaton.

ARCON ® 3G has been developed to reduce the risk of dangerous and costly arc flash incidents in low voltage switchgear assemblies.

Electricity + Control JULY 2021

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