New-Tech Europe | March 2017 | Digital Edition

Residual Current Devices in a Digital World

Peter-Lukas Genowitz, Product Manager RCCB at Eaton

How the use of digital residual current devices increases operator safety, machine uptime and profitability Maximising uptime is vital for companies to remain competitive in today’s market. For example the cost of downtime on a machine can easily run in to tens of thousands of Euros. Many businesses operate with minimal reserve stock, while processes typically run at over 95% uptime to meet demand. For these reasons, downtime can quickly lead to loss of shipments, impacting turnover and customer confidence. Circuit protection and in particular digital residual current devices (RCDs) can help machine builders offer their manufacturing customers increased uptime as they provide local and remote monitoring and pre-warning capabilities. This technology provides information

about the machine’s health to the maintenance personnel and therefore facilitates preventive maintenance, ultimately leading to less machine downtime. Further increases to a machine’s reliability can be made by installing the right technology according to appropriate standards and safety requirements. Here is it vital for machine builders, especially for those who export worldwide, to work with partners that know the international requirements, saving both time and money. The function of a residual current device RCDs protect against damaging electrical faults, where residual and leakage currents caused by fault conditions occur within an electrical circuit. These can have devastating effects on the human body, causing

cardiac arrest or worse, and lead to machine failure affecting the bottom-line. They can also lead to fires. RCDs have been available for decades, reliably protecting man and machine. The first patents were received by Professor Dr. Biegelmeier in 1957, and further development ensued with the first permanent magnet tripping unit being developed in 1965 - this is the heart of the modern RCD. The first digital RCD Type B and B+ technology was available in 2014. The advantages of RCDs are widely known, but digital RCDs are heralding a new era in preventative maintenance. The IEC 60364 and the respective national standards or the NEC (National Electrical Standard) for North America provide the base for the installation of Low Voltage

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