As we go about our daily lives, we rarely think about the industrial applications that are busy working 24/7 to make our lives easier. There are numerous industries that are generally not observed by the public due to the fact that they are located in relatively remote areas. “Industrial” businesses can be physically located in areas that are not very populated, due to the fact that the daily tasks that happen on site would create troublesome situations in more residential areas. Industrial areas are zoned that way so that businesses can conduct the tasks they need to without being an inconvenience to people living around them. Other types of businesses might have portions of their inventories located within populated areas, but in a way that generally blends into the background. After seeing things like cellular towers or windmills on a daily basis, we sometimes begin to lose interest in exactly what they’re doing, and simply move by them without noticing. The technical aspects of the equipment and the processes that is happening within these areas might surprise you. You think that industrial areas are simply places where large trucks come and go, or large amounts of noise is being made. In many modern industrial installations, there is no noise at all. When we are talking about things like the generation of power for public usage, or the towers that allow us to connect our cellular devices to networks, we’re talking about some of the more modern versions of industrial businesses. These types of industries involve large amounts of equipment that is considered high tech. This equipment being positioned within areas that is exposed to the elements is mission critical for the functionality of many of these businesses, but is also one of the biggest drawbacks to daily operations. This is because most industrial businesses must figure in a certain amount of repair costs every quarter, due to the fact that equipment is often damaged in the field.
One of the main causes of the losses within industrial businesses is lightning strikes. Because of the exposed nature of the equipment involved, lightning has a tendency to strike these components, or the structures that they’re housed within. When a lightning strike happens and affects equipment at the strike point, many times the damage is not isolated to that point. Due to the fact that most industrial businesses require equipment to be connected together through data transfer lines or power lines, the surge of electricity that follows a lightning strike provides additional damage to the connect equipment. The lightning strike itself is difficult to avoid, but the damage to downstream equipment is able to be avoided through the installation of industrial protection from lightning. This comes in the form of surge protection equipment that is installed at critical points between components. The ability to divert excess electricity that is entered the system, is the saving grace of many industrial businesses today. Due to the fact that equipment which was once expected to be damaged by surging power can now be salvaged, the profitability of many businesses is increased. Surge protection devices are the modern industrial protection from lightning.
