Fairford Electronics has released a new soft started technology, to deliver cost savings and increase operating life, called PLUSS which can be used worldwide. Fairford PLUSS allows two or more smaller soft starters to work together to control larger power motors. This results in increased operational life, cost savings and improved system reliability for thousands of soft starter applications.
Soft starting is used to control the initial voltage to motors for a jerk free start in all industrial applications such as cement, oil and gas, chemicals and petrochemicals, power generation, paper and pulp, and mining to ensure there is no large jump in energy requirement or mechanical stress.
In industry alone, 75% of all energy is used by electric motors in applications such as HVAC, chillers and freezers, mixers and pumps, the aim is for the technology to enable massive energy reductions.
The technology can also be applied to thyristor based power controllers such as solid state relays and applications ranging from electrical heating to the control DC link voltages in motor drives.
Mark Shepherd, Managing Director at Fairford Electronics, said: "Following the Brexit vote, the UK government is placing even more emphasis on UK manufacturing, especially by supporting innovative ideas, so we are delighted to have gained a worldwide patent for this new technology and to have another global first for a British company.
“We are known internationally for our innovative technology and solutions are always at the core of activities and what ensures the company to lead the soft starter global market.
“This new PLUSS technology will deliver significant cost savings by allowing companies to replace a high power soft starter with two or more smaller units.
“Larger power soft starters are more expensive to manufacture compared to smaller versions because of a lack of economies of scale on production, approvals and testing.
“A PLUSS control system means a spare soft starter can be included on critical applications, ready to take over in the event of a fault on another soft starter. Thermal load sharing between several soft starters working in parallel on one application also boosts reliability and operating lifetime of the control system.”
Gary Stephens, Engineer at Fairford Electronics, explained: “The Fairford PLUSS system simply requires soft starters to be joined with a communications cable. The PLUSS software on each soft starter then synchronises each starter to operate alternately on each cycle of the input power.
“One soft starter takes the load for one half of the cycle and the other soft starter takes over on the rest of the cycle, effectively swopping the load between the two starters up to 100 times a second. The more soft starters are connected with PLUSS technology, the greater the load sharing.”
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