ELECTRICAL PROTECTION IN INDUSTRIAL FACILITIES

Today, the word ‘Producing’ is extremely important for our country. However, the concepts of Sustainable Production and Fast Production are the most important patterns that make the economic cycle of production meaningful. The protection of human life safety is as extremely important as the protection of our systems in our facility, and all protection measures are made mandatory by legal laws. In this article, we will talk about systems that will ensure sustainable production in industrial facilities and prevent damage to human life as a result of electrical faults.

First of all, let’s discuss the issue of Lightning protection, which is among the main business items of Yılkomer. A lightning impulse that will fall on your facility or near it in an area of 2km can damage all electrical and automation systems in the facility, as well as cause serious loss of property and life as a result of fire. Therefore, we must definitely protect our facility against Lightning impulse. When it comes to lightning protection in our country, the most frequently applied system stands out as the lightning rod (paratoner). However, we do not consider a lightning protection system based on a lightning rod to be correct. When lightning protection ways See (https://yilkomer.com/yildirimdan-korunma-yollari/) are researched, systems designed with the Insulated Passive Air Terminal system in the light of IEC norms stand out as the most correct protection system. Therefore, primarily, we need to choose the external lightning protection system correctly, which catches the impulse and transmits it to the ground. For the design, we need to have a survey and risk analysis done by an expert engineer. If we do not carry out these studies and put a lightning rod by rote, we will invite very serious damages. Many fires originating from lightning and consequently loss of life occur in our country. The statistic that 27 people lost their lives due to lightning in the first 3 months of 2018 in our country is quite a serious statistic. It is possible for the lightning impulse to walk in the ground due to reasons such as touch voltage, step voltage, and harm people. Especially in industrial facilities, no one focuses on the step voltage problem that the impulse flowing into the ground will create. Let’s think simply, there is a lightning rod system on your roof that emits active ions and invites lightning to the facility. The impulse falls on the lightning rod and reaches the ground, and then, because the rules of potential drift and step voltage in the ground are not paid attention to, the personnel who are outside at that time are shocked and die. A human dies when the voltage under his feet exceeds 50V. Therefore, this problem should be eliminated by applying Mesh network. There are many points to be considered in lightning protection application like this. These issues closely concerning human life such as the concept of equipotential, the concept of insulated down conductor system, the concept of potential dragging, the use of spark gap are important. A possible Lightning impulse cannot damage the facility as a result of scientific studies, it can be prevented. In this process where we live the space age, it is not correct to be afraid of lightning and not be able to protect against it. However, unfortunately, 99% of the lightning rod systems installed in our country are faulty, resulting in human deaths, device damages, and fire…

If we look at the issue of electrical damage as a result of lightning, the importance of using Low Voltage Surge Arrester emerges. Whether there is an external lightning protection system in a facility or not, LV Surge Arrester systems must definitely be protected. A lightning impulse can damage electrical systems, automation systems, cameras, and many other systems in the entire facility in 100 ns. To be protected from these damages, main entrance panels and sub-panels, Data and Telecom lines, Automation systems must be protected with surge arresters in every factory. If not taken, the concept of Sustainable Production mentioned at the beginning of our article remains meaningless. If you do not protect a Million Dollar facility with a 100 Dollar product, science and engineering are incapable at this point.

Apart from lightning impulse, grid-sourced impulses, harmonics, sudden voltage surges, grid step changes, grounding faults, residual currents, ground-neutral voltage problems damage the systems in our facility. You can provide protection against all sudden developing impulses again with LV Surge Arrester systems. As Yılkomer, our Raycap brand, for which we carry out the country representation, has 2400 different products. We can protect our facility with classic surge arresters, as well as with the World’s most advanced protection systems called Strikesorb technology. As a basic logic, product series such as Type 1+2+3, Type 2, Type 1+2, Type 3 should be based on correct placement in surge arrester protection by conducting a survey throughout the factory. Cascaded protection principles, correct blending of product technologies are sufficient to protect your facility. Only hearsay information, wrong products suggested by German companies presenting themselves as experts are nothing but deception for the protection of the facility. The task falling on us here is correct research, a professional survey, correct product selection, and perfect application. As a facility maintenance engineer, our 1st duty is to select protection elements correctly. If not selected correctly, failures return to us as discontinuous production and unnecessary workload.

In conclusion, in a correct lightning protection system design, the design and selection of external lightning protection and internal lightning protection systems are quite important.

Human Life is quite important in a facility more than our devices. Here too, the application of Residual Current Relays See (https://yilkomer.com/kacak-akim-rolesi-ve-topraklama-iliskisi/) is quite important. Except for the TN system, residual current relay application is mandatory in 300mA main entrance and 30mA internal distribution panels. Only in TN systems, 300mA is not mandatory, but 30mA is still mandatory. 300mA stands out as fire protection and 30mA as human protection system.

The subject is simple. If there is a leakage at a point, the circuit is completed over the human. And when the threshold value is exceeded, we die. Our goal is for the circuit not to be completed over the human body. The installation of residual current systems seems impossible in most facilities. Incomplete infrastructure, dirty ground, excessive harmonic and frequency problems. Under these conditions, it is impossible for classic residual current relays to hold. We overcome the problem with digital adjustable smart relay systems. With these products, we detect problems and perform residual current design and application correctly. Remember, there is no such problem as Residual Current Not Holding. The problem is incomplete engineering. As Yılkomer, we carry out the country responsibility of the CONTREL company at this point.

Grounding faults in the facility, neutral-ground voltage problems, and harmonic problems can also lead to many negative situations in the facility. The solution to all these is to have electrical installation control done with professional calibrated devices and a good engineer. With this work, which is mandatory to be done once a year, you can even detect heating cables with the help of a thermal camera and detect the fire that will break out in advance.

Our motto is Fire and device damage originating from Electrical installation can be prevented! Is in the form of.

Within the scope of IEC 62305 Standard, correct lightning protection system design, residual current applications, LV Surge Arrester design, Electrical Installation Control, and Electrical Measurement studies are subjects that must always be kept in the 1st place for facility safety. Please take the correct protection measures in your facility to protect engineers and managers who are legally responsible in negative situations themselves and their facilities; to protect human life primarily.

As Yılkomer Lightning Protection Center;

We offer A+ professional service in our country on free lightning protection survey and design, LV Surge Arrester product consultancy, selection, application;

Survey and demo installation on residual current, Electrical installation control studies, and grounding measurements. You can always get support from us.

Remember Yılkomer ‘Protects Your Values!’