CIRCUTOR Heavy Duty Capacitors

One of the common solutions for improving energy efficiency is power factor correction, with the capacitor being the key element.

Consolidated strength

Rising costs of electrical energy and greater environmental awareness have led us to improve energy efficiency. One common solution for improving energy efficiency is power factor correction, with the capacitor being the key element.

For twenty years CIRCUTOR has been using gas impregnation technology, which together with other advances, provides capacitors with what are known in the market as Heavy Duty features.The capacitors permanently support 1.8 times the rated current (RC), reaching 2.5 times RC, for short time and can reach an inrush current of up to 400 times RC. Class D of the IEC-60831, the low voltage capacitor manufacturing standard, sets a maximum working value of 55ºC, but the strength of the CIRCUTOR Heavy Duty capacitor enables capacitors to work in extreme temperature conditions, occasionally supporting up to 65ºC, with this beings another key feature ensuring 150,000 h of useful life. All these features make CIRCUTOR Heavy Duty capacitors highly strenght and long lasting.

European raw materials for greater durability

On this was these Heavy Duty capacitors can support more demanding work conditions, with extreme temperatures, and fluctuations in working voltage and current due to CIRCUTOR applies a policy of choosing high quality raw materials. In the case of CIRCUTOR Heavy Duty capacitors, the key material is metallized polypropylene, which always has European origin with the very highest performance features.

CIRCUTOR Heavy Duty capacitors impregnated by inert gas (DRY technology) are very safe against fire and toxic leakage, and are also biodegradable, in contrast to oil saturated foil, or solid or semi-solid resins which are flammable. Other advantages of inert gas impregnation are:

• Lighter in weight compared to other capacitors of equal power, thus improving both transport costs and the cost of the batteries it is equipped with, and achieving greater cost efficiency and advantages for both the end user and for the whole supply chain.
• Increased safety, due to the greater efficiency of the internal pressure relief valve protection system. In the absence of a liquid impregnant (oil) or solid impregnant (thermosetting resin), the gases of the capacitive elements emitted in the event of a fault act directly on this internal pressure relief safety valve.
• The absence of leakages also enables different assembly options, adaptable to the various types of cabinets available, achieving optimal adaptation of the final solution to each user.
• Environmentally friendly, since they are capacitors impregnated with harmless and inert gas, they are also free of oils or other impregnants with risk of leakage.

The optimised design of the CIRCUTOR Heavy Duty capacitor permits the achievement of this high level of performance, maintaining the necessary degree of cooling to achieve up to 150,000 hours of lifetime.

Durability and safety as a key factor

Another advantage, besides the inert gas impregnant of these Heavy Duty capacitors, is the metallised selfhealing capacity (figure 1), which prevents leakages after a dielectric breakdown. This allows better withstand any network overvoltages, high working temperatures and the presence of harmonic currents in the network to be compensated, or even a high number of connection operations.

Like with any other material, polypropylene chemically degrades over time, which here is coupled with the electrical stress factors of the capacitor. For this reasons, capacitors should be equipped with appropriate protection systems, so if necessary they can be disconnected without causing any damage to the neighboring elements (other capacitors, switching equipment, regulator etc.). In this regard, CIRCUTOR Heavy Duty capacitors are equipped with a pressure relief protection system, which acts in the event of an increase in its internal pressure simply a higher value than 506 hPa approximately (0.5 bar), disconnecting the capacitor from the mains as shown in the figure 2.

Figure.2 
The CIRCUTOR Heavy Duty capacitors have an overpressure protection system which is activated
in case of any increase in internal pressure, disconnecting the capacitor from the network.

Manufacturing: a vital step for quality

The figure 3 at the next page shows the main components of the capacitors filled with CIRCUTOR Heavy Duty gas.

Figure 3

Its manufacturing process includes the basic premise of any product manufactured by CIRCUTOR: maximum guarantees of quality and reliability. This means that the capacitor production process includes some aspects that are worthy of mention:

Conclusions

In summary, we can highlight the strength of the Heavy Duty capacitors, a reliable unit that permanently supports 1.8 times the rated current and up to 2.5 times RC for short time, reaching an inrush current of up to 400 times RC, and guaranteeing a long lifetime of up to 150,000 hours. All these features make CIRCUTOR Heavy Duty capacitors highly resistant and long lasting. Aware also of market needs, CIRCUTOR has more than 15,000 Heavy Duty capacitors in stock, ready to be delivered upon customer request. CIRCUTOR is the ideal partner for power factor correction solutions, thanks to its Heavy Duty capacitors and its regulators.

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