EC: Quint Power supply

Power — Energy, power protection: The newest generation of Quint Power changes the way end users think about the implementation of power supplies with advanced operation, diagnostics, visual indication, and near-field communication. This is a Control Engineering 2017 Engineers’ Choice Awards Winner.

October 13, 2016

Application security has come to the forefront of end user concerns. In many cases people immediately think of network security. However, the power supply that is supplying the main 24 Vdc bus to the cabinet is a critical piece of the application.

The newest generation of Quint Power products takes power security to a new level. The input, output, and diagnostics have been improved over the industry-proven Quint SFB family.

The input stage of the Quint Power supplies always had metal-oxide varistors (MOVs) as a form of transient protection. The latest generation builds upon the MOVs and adds a gas-discharge tube (GDT) to provide coordinated surge protection to the power supplies.

The output stage of the new power supplies can be tailored to the end user’s specific application. Quint Power is well known for its robust Power Boost circuit and Selective Fuse Breaking (SFB) technology. This functionality still remains, however, users can now, through a near-field communication (NFC) interface, change the output behavior of the power supplies. They may select between "fold forward," "hiccup mode," and a special "fuse mode."

Diagnostics of the power system provide insight into the health of a control cabinet’s functionality. The new Quint Power supplies have increased intelligence and can provide more information into the performance of the power supply and dc bus. With both dry contacts and an analog output configurable through the passive NFC, users can choose to set alarm thresholds or receive real-time values for various conditions. The analog output can be set to monitor output voltage, output current, or output power. The dry contacts can be set to trigger on output voltage, output current, output power, operating hours, temperature pre-warning, or overvoltage protection.

The newest generation of Quint Power products provides the maximum reliability to any control application.

Phoenix Contact, www.phoenixcontact.com