DC/DC Converters for Cost-Effective Protection using Circuit Breakers

DC/DC converters in the Quint Power design are new additions to the Phoenix Contact product range. Employing Selective Fuse Breaking (SFB) technology, these high-quality voltage converters reliably trip standard circuit breakers. Faulty circuits are selectively shut down, the fault is localized, and important system components remain operational.

So Much More Than Voltage Conversion

The devices change the voltage level or equalize voltage drops as a result of losses, by boosting the voltage when long supply cables are used. As a result of the electrical isolation, they separate circuits in order to decouple and protect sensitive loads. This is the reason that the primary switched-mode switching devices have an internal intermediate circuit, which serves as a filter. For instance, this allows grounded circuits to be separated from non-grounded ones. Another advantage is that critical loads are protected against disturbing voltage fluctuations.

DC/DC converters for cost-effective Protection

All Phoenix Contact DC/DC converters have features that are designed to prevent unnecessary downtime and therefore maximise your system availability.

With rated output currents from 5 to 20 A, these devices supply peak currents from 30 up to 120 A for 12 ms to magnetically trip circuit breakers. The voltage converters operate with DC input voltages between 18 and 32 V DC. The range is expanded to between 14 and 32 V DC in operation. Five modules supply output voltages of 5–18, 30–56, and 18–29.5 V DC, which can be adjusted at the front. Comprehensive diagnostics is ensured by constantly monitoring the input voltage, output voltage, and output current. This preventive function monitoring visualizes critical operating states and signals them to the control system via the active switched output or the isolated relay contact before faults occur in the plant or system.

With an efficiency of up to 93%, only a little of the electrical energy is converted into undesirable heat. This not only saves energy, but also extends the service life of the components. The devices have widths of 32, 48, and 82 mm. The wide temperature range of –25 to +70 °C allows the unit to be used in a diverse range of applications. The devices have a VI characteristic with power boost, i.e. the DC/DC converters can continually supply 125 percent of the rated current.