Panelboard awarded patent for breaker coordination, touchsafe capabilities

ABB received a patent for its ProLine Panelboard, noted for having complete breaker coordination and touchsafe capabilities.

October 7, 2011

ABB’s Low Voltage Products division has been awarded a United States patent for the advanced current limiting, selective coordination and safety technology of its ProLine Panelboard product. The patent recognizes ProLine Panelboard as the only product of its kind with complete breaker coordination and touchsafe capabilities. ProLine Panelboard is suited for industrial and commercial applications where power reliability and safety of high integrity is required such as critical power, data centers, banking, insurance and medical.

ProLine Panelboard has selective coordination. Selective coordination increases uptime by limiting power outages to the branch of an electrical system where a problem occurs, without knocking out other areas of the system. When a fault occurs the closest overcurrent protective device opens, ensuring that any faults do not cascade upstream. In this way the advanced breaker coordination technology isolates electrical problems, stops nuisance tripping and avoids system-wide blackouts.

ProLine Panelboard isolates the operator during installation and maintenance, eliminating human exposure to any live components. The bus bar is covered and the interior is encased in resin for additional safety. Breaker connections are made in "wells" that prevent any contact with live parts, while containing any arcs that may occur. Traditional US panelboards feature an open architecture with the bus bar structure and breaker hardware void of any insulating material, exposing operators to “live” parts when servicing and installing. Such systems require the operator to manually secure the breaker with a screw directly on the open chassis bus bar. ABB’s system features a breaker screw that mechanically secures the breaker with a connection not connected to the bus bar.

www.abb.com

The ABB Group

– Edited by Chris Vavra, Control Engineering, www.controleng.com