TVSS For Electrical Protection
The term TVSS has been in use for years, being a shortened version of “transient voltage surge suppressor.” Raycap is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of TVSS devices, or Surge Protective Devices (SPDs), used throughout industrial sites to protect sensitive equipment from power surge damage and data loss. Electrical surges on AC power lines can be caused by several different events, all with varying degrees of damage as a result. In the case of lightning surges where spikes of over 50,000V routinely happen, Strikesorb TVSS equipment installed before and after the point of strike has the ability to minimize loss from the lightning surge. TVSS equipment also mitigates the damage from minor spikes or surges or “electrical transients” caused by the switching on and off of equipment.
TVSS devices are the most common of all power protection devices in use today. It is a common misconception that TVSS devices somehow can add to power saving efforts, and are often marketed as equipment suites that can be considered “green”, however this is not the case at all, as TVSS devices in no way conserve power. Instead, they function as shutoff switches which trigger action when an electrical spike is detected. They either break the circuit or divert the energy to ground, away from the equipment on the other side, thus protecting it from bearing the impact of the electrical surge event.
A lightning surge is the most potentially damaging of all electrical surges, due to the extremely high levels of electricity that are generated from such a strike. The different types of lightning strike damage that can occur have much to do with the actual location of the strike itself. In the case of a “direct strike” where lightning hits the equipment itself, that equipment will probably be destroyed, and TVSS switching will have little impact due to the fact that the strike itself and electrical surge that is produced happen before the installation of the TVSS device. While TVSS devices are protection from the currents that run down lines that are attached to the equipment, they essentially break that line and disallow the current to continue flowing in a direction. The varying levels of current that can be produced in a lightning surge incident along with the distance from the equipment that the point of strike happens is an indicator of the level of effectiveness that TVSS mechanisms will have if not used in combination with a redundant system of products. Raycap suggests the installation of varying types of surge suppression mechanisms in conjunction with the TVSS devices, thus providing protection from direct strikes, ongoing switching degradation, and other types.
The effective operation of industrial sites worldwide is dependent upon the use of industrial strength TVSS protection. The installation of such electrical protection systems from Raycap will provide companies with the most comprehensive levels of surge suppression available, and in the cases of lightning surges, damage will be minimized as a result of the unique Strikesorb surge protection technology.
