Impact of Leakage Currents in a Control System
Published on : Monday 30-11--0001
Facing problems related to process failure due to the tough environmental conditions in plants and industries where there are numerous machineries and equipment running 24/7, is of a most crucial nature. Especially when one cannot see any tangible reasons of failures and is unable to find the root cause of the problems. In many such cases there is always a challenge as even after detecting the nature of problem, the end user has not many choices to quickly make changes in the running equipment within the desired time frame. Moreover, many of these problems may be caused due to subtle unavoidable changes in the operating conditions, environmental conditions and premature failures due to the same.
Challenge
In August 2015, the Finder team visited a reputed Alumina Refinery plant in an eastern state of India to offer solutions in switching interfaces and other thermo-regulation solutions for the Electrical and Control Panels that were operating in the plant. This plant is running since more than 35 years with continuous upgrades in its instrumentation and control system since the last decade in order to increase efficiency and to meet the growing demand for produced Alumina.
For one such application, where the control panel was operating with a control system voltage of 230 V AC for electrical interfacing, Finder was asked to offer a solution against a unique problem where the relay interfaces were not operating satisfactorily. The problem was that the interposing relays were not functioning properly and as a result the system was showing unwanted picking up of relays on some occasions and on the other, the relays were not dropping even after the power source to the same was cut-off.
Solution
Finder offered one of its latest innovations in its range of Slim Relay Interfaces which are built with a special “Leakage Current suppression” circuit. The advantage of this kind of a design came to the rescue in this problem due to many unique advantages. The specially designed relay provided a control circuit for relays to respond to such needs. The circuitry is particularly well-suited to controlling energisation current to the relay coil. The circuit effectively suppressed the leakage current at levels which could cause false energisation or prevent de-energisation of the relay in operation. The other advantage was that the user was able to replace the miss-behaving relays with these Slim relays in the same space inside the panel and did not need any additional space.
Result
Finder with its committed and engaged focus on Relay Technology proved to be a capable partner and a collaborating member of the maintenance team in the plant. Their initial response was that to test our industry know-how and proficiency in solving the problem. Therefore initially a trial quantity order was placed to test the solution. After a successful working of more than two months and understanding the advantage of the latest design and technology the complete panel was replaced with Finder Relays which are now well sustained in their operations well into the future.
Finder is a technology developer in Switching Interfaces like Relays and timers, thermo-regulation products, voltage, current and monitoring for automation industry and a host of energy saving solutions for lighting control in infrastructure globally. Continuing more than a 60-year history of innovation, Finder today is writing the future of industrial switching technology with its presence in more than 70 countries.