At the September Technology Evening, Phoenix Contact’s Tony Rayner enlightened the Johannesburg branch about the general effects of lightning and switching transients as well as various precautionary measures including surge protection for automation equipment. He also touched on legal plant requirements such as earthling in compliance with IEC 61312.
Eric Carter presents Tony with the SAIMC certificate after the presentation.
Lightning and switching transients are the greatest cause of damage to electrical equipment. In South Africa, lightning claims result in claim payouts of hundreds of millions of rand annually with 65% of electronic failures associated directly or indirectly to transients.
The importance of surge protection was emphasised as, at any given time, there are some 2000 thunderstorms in progress around the world. These storms produce about 30 to 100 cloud to ground flashes each second, or about 5 million flashes per day. Other causes of transients are electrical switching and electro static discharge.
Tony entertained us with some fascinating visuals of the Lightning Phenomena Transient Luminous events and put an end to age old myths like lighting only strikes the highest point. With visuals from a high-speed camera, he also showed the audience how lightning can strike the same spot more than once, in that instance 17 times.
The presentation ended with the different technologies and classes available for transient and surge protection. Much has been done to understand the dynamics of lightning. With this in mind, reputable manufacturers of lightning and surge protection devices are effectively able to protect equipment against damaging transients when correct installation and earthing procedures are followed.
Tony covered the following topics:
* Thunderstorms and lightning.
* Personal safety during thunderstorms.
* Grounding and bonding.
* Surge protection: for power supplies, control systems, IT and telecommunications.
The Johannesburg branch thanks Tony for this fascinating and interactive presentation.
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