The Importance Of Adequate Surge Protection In Industrial Settings
Industrial applications make use of the most robust versions of equipment in all processes, simply due to the fact that equipment must be kept up and running at all times. In industrial settings you will often find equipment within the harshest of environments, fully or partially exposed to the elements, and enduring ongoing wear and tear. All the while industrial equipment is expecting to outperform residential equipment and remain working through any day or night. Industrial equipment is tasked with far more arduous operation than anything that is being used in the residential space. It is responsible for keeping critical systems online for the ongoing function of whatever business they support. Industries such as communications, power generation, transportation and others are responsible for keeping the connected world moving, and huge amounts of energy is expended to support that effort.
When the specific components involved in a particular industrial site are being installed, there may be instances where ancillary equipment that is not integral to the specific processes is overlooked. Such is the case with industrial surge protection from time to time, due to the fact that SPDs are not required by the system in order for it to function and perform the tasks that it has been charged with. Surge protection equipment is designed to exist in the background, installed as a precaution to only be utilized in the case of a power surge that would overwhelm the attached computers and data processors. The status of the installed surge protection equipment will also be unknown to the overall operations as well, due to the fact that it is not going to cause a shutdown of operations if it is not functioning properly. The status of these devices being verified at periodic intervals as operational and functional is critical; however in the case that it is not functioning properly the business is being exposed to potential losses if a surge was to take place. Simply put, surge protection equipment has a single function, to cut off or divert the overflow of excess electricity going to connected equipment in an emergency so as to not let an over voltage pass through and come in contact with the expensive and sensitive computer equipment. If the surge protection equipment fails, a power surge will most likely cause large amounts of damage to all components connected.
Having surge protection equipment integrated into or adjacent to industrial systems should not be an afterthought. Instead it should be one of the priorities of system functionality that is built into every plan. In the event of a power surge there is a good chance that system functionality would be lost due to damage, essentially taking the entire business or service offline. In order to avoid these situations and limit the amount of downtime to a resetting of any component that has gone offline at that point, the most robust surge protection devices must be used. These devices must be checked in order to assure proper functionality and verified that they are not compromised. A failure to do so can result in exposure of millions of dollars of business equipment to complete loss. No loss is good for business, and the minimization of losses is what surge protection equipment does.
