What is Surge Protection and why is it important?

All you need to know about power surges, their causes, the necessity of surge protectors, and GTT Wireless’ support and stock of the technology…

How do we define a power surge?

A power surge is a transient event where the voltage in a circuit drastically increases above its normal yield for at least 3 nanoseconds, although such events typically last between 1 and 30 microseconds. Such an event can heat up and burn through wires, cause fires, and destroy a variety of electronics, from household devices to industrial machinery. Anything connected to a power source is at risk and the results can be devastating given the high pressure placed on the devices, despite the very short duration of the surge.

What can cause a power surge?

The primary causes of electrical surges are devices that require lots of power to operate, the switching of power sources, and also lightning strikes. The other factors can cause spikes of over 1000 volts but lightning, while not quite as common, is especially dangerous because it can create a very intense surge of over 100,000 volts. However, climate change has led to an increase of incidents of lightning strikes causing power surges. This is a significant factor that is expected to increase demand in surge protectors over the next decade.

What are surge protectors and how can they help?

Quite simply, any electronics, particularly those that are expensive, benefit from surge protection. The protector is a device or component that will protect the electronics from spikes in voltage in AC circuits. Some surge protectors can absorb the voltage spike and discharge it as heat but most of them are designed to trigger at a specific voltage, usually 3 or 4 times the expected voltage, and divert the increased current to earth, shorting the circuit.

Most surge protectors are rated depending to the energy they can absorb and divert in joules, but voltage is still an important unit. Many problems surrounding surges occur because of differences in the mains voltage of different countries, with devices safe to use in some not being safe in others. The standard voltage in the UK is 230 volts but, in the US, the standard voltage is 120 volts. Issues will begin to occur if the voltage is raised above these thresholds but surge protection can be used to negate these issues.

Some regulations, such as the EIT 18^th edition, now advise and recommend that surge protectors be installed in industrial environments. Spikes can not only be of risk to equipment, rendering it useless, but to individuals too, making surge protectors vital for personal safety. In a time where the deployment of high-voltage equipment is ever expanding, surge protection is more important than ever for stopping damage to and loss off expensive machinery and technology, reducing, if not preventing, repair time, and improving the reliability of any system it is employed in.

GTT Wireless’ dedication to Surge Protection

GTT Wireless’ dedication to surge protection extents to having the technology integrated into antenna and cable assemblies, as well as offering easy-to-install add-ons to protect existing RF and PoE products.

Any GTT Wireless RF cable can be supplied with an additional surge protector that can be easily screwed onto the bulkhead, which can then fit an antenna. These protectors operate at a frequency of up to 6.0GHz, have a maximum surge protection of 10KV and an operating temperature of between -20°C and +75°C, making them perfect for installation with the extreme environment electronics enclosure, GTT’s mSmart-Box. But instead of a cable and a separate protector, GTT also have an innovative product that combines the two: an RF cable bulkhead with built-in surge protection.   

The same is true for any PoE/LAN component supplied in a GTT Wireless build. An RJ45 module can be supplied with a surge protection PoE tube which has a cable connector and can fit a cable gland. It has industrial surge/ESD protection, an IP67 rating, is CAT.5e and CAT.6 compliant, has a separate ground wire option, is shielded for EMI noise suppression, and is compatible with Max. 57V power over Ethernet systems. However, this too is subject of a GTT innovation and we can offer a module with built-in surge protection with a max surge protection of 6KV (1.2/50uS) or 3KA (8/20uS), and a rapid response time of under 1 nanosecond.

GTT Wireless also offers an outdoor IP67/NEMA6 4G (LTE) industrial antenna with an integrated surge protector. GTT products are compatible with our mSmart-box die cast aluminium range of IP67 / NEMA 6 ready outdoor electronics enclosure.

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