Riken Electric is a well-established brand and a customer-centric business with a strong focus on creating a positive customer experience. “We place enormous emphasis on building technical skill and knowledge within our staff as this enables us to deliver superior value to our customers,” says Brendyn Meyer, CEO of Riken Electric. “We place a huge focus on reliability both in terms of the quality of our products, as well as the service we offer. Our products have international certification and are backed by a two-year warranty.”
Riken Electric has recently custom-designed various surge protection devices for some of its customers who have experienced over-and under-voltage, or who have experienced issues associated with phase failure protection. This has helped these customers to avoid huge insurance claims caused by loadshedding issues as well as the problems associated with the current dirty power sources we are experiencing in South Africa on an ongoing day-to-day basis.
“Another problem our customers experience is due to phase rotation when the grid is restored after power outages,” explains Meyer. “These outages are commonly caused by electrical surges, cable theft during loadshedding, mini-sub blowouts or the malfunctioning of switchgear due to poor maintenance.”
When power is restored, the phases are reconnected in the wrong sequence, leading to reverse phasing. This can cause damage to machinery and equipment such as conveyers, refrigeration compressors, inverters or any other three-phase motor applications.
In the case of inverters, the inverter will sense the incorrect phase sequence and will automatically switch off. “On many occasions, the technicians must then be called out to adjust the inverter to accommodate reverse phase. This delay comes at a cost as the customer has by this stage been without power for a lengthy period of time,” says Meyer. “The next morning, the municipality or Eskom will realise that the phases were swapped the night before and will then restore them to a clockwise rotation. This results in the inverter sensing a reverse phase as the phases have now been swapped back to the original (clockwise) rotation and switched off. Once again, the technicians must be called out to attend to the inverter. This leads to financial losses due to down-time and repairs.”
Riken’s technical team has now designed a low-voltage solution to address phase failures for its customers. “The unit automatically maintains a clockwise rotation irrespective of the upstream phase configuration. It de-energises or isolates the circuit with over- and under-voltage or phase failure conditions, which is critical for the protection of the load and equipment. The unit is also equipped with ultimate surge and lightning protection that responds within a nanosecond to Class I + II surges (switching and lightning) and honours a 10-year replacement warranty. This advantage contributes to a longer life span for all electronic and electrical equipment connected to the Auto Phase Sequence Correction unit,” concludes Meyer.
Enquiries: www.riken.co.za