Commercial grade surge protection that is utilized in industrial sites that have millions of dollars’ worth of equipment at stake is much the same as residential devices that protect your home computer. While the real differences are found in the surge protection type and technology as well as the robustness of the components in the device itself, the general way that the device functions is not very different in both applications. Think about it like this, there is water flowing down a stream that has a dam set up on it. Instead of the dam being closed in order to hold the water back, the opposite is true. The dam is wide open and allowing all of the water to flow past it without any restriction. The dam has a technological device attached to it that will close it completely if the water flow levels go above a certain point, and this device is set to perform this action instantaneously. The very second that the water goes above a certain point, the dam slams shut and cuts off the flow of water completely. Once the flow of water has returned to the safe levels, then the dam doors can be reset open and allow the water to flow. Surge protection devices work in this same way, only the water is electricity and the dam doors represent a gap or diversion that stops the electrical current.
Electrical current has different levels, and machinery can operate only within certain ranges of this flow. If the flow gets too small, the equipment will shut down for lack of power. It the flow gets too large, the internal components will be damaged. The actual wires and cables that allow the electricity to flow to the equipment can handle larger amounts of electricity than the equipment can, ultimately making them not be available as a failsafe for equipment protection. Basically, the power lines will not be damaged at the same electrical levels as the equipment it is connected to, so an additional device must be installed that will protect the equipment downstream. This is the surge protection device. The one and only job of the surge protection device is to prevent the flow of electricity over a certain level to move past it.
The differences between residential and industrial surge protection devices are seen in how robust they are, and the amount of electricity that can flow across them. Since industrial applications generally function at a level that needs more electricity to operate, the devices themselves must be built to these standards. In addition, industrial surge protection devices are tasked with operation in more harsh conditions than residential surge protection devices, which means they must be built to handle the additional stresses of weather. If the surge protection device fails, then the system is unprotected. This is why industrial surge protection devices need to be better built than residential, even though they essentially perform the same tasks. Raycap creates the world’s leading industrial surge protection devices.
