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Published on: Tuesday, Tue, 17 Jul 2018 ● 2 Min Read
November 2017 – With recent estimates putting the number of fires caused by faulty electrical installation in Europe at over two million, costing over €126 billion in fire damage, the need to deliver better fire protection for residential and commercial installations, has never been higher.
Germany will be the first country in Europe to prescribe the installation of an AFDD as mandatory (from 18 December 2017) and drawing on its extensive experience in home and building safety, ABB has launched its new S-ARC1 series to provide complete protection for people, buildings and irreplaceable goods. With the new series, most common hazards triggered by disruptions in electrical installation can be detected in advance, minimizing the risk of fire damage.
According to the product standard IEC/EN 62606, an AFDD is a device intended to mitigate the effects of arcing faults, by automatically disconnecting the circuit when an arc fault is detected. The causes of Arc Faults include damaged installations, trapped cables, cable breakage, UV radiation and rodent damage, loose contacts and connections, incorrect installation or broken plugs and cables.
Commenting on the launch, Piero-Giorgio Schiannini, Global Product Group Manager DIN rail Products, said: “Protecting our customers is at the forefront of our product innovation, and is central to ABB’s product philosophy and global mission, and we are committed to reducing the number of unnecessary fires. The new S-ARC1 series is an easy way for installers to minimise potential issues and provide peace of mind for their customers. It offers maximum safety and easy installation and is a positive step forward in our building protection solutions.”
ABB’s new 1P+N Arc Fault Detection Devices with integrated Miniature Circuit Breaker (MCB), S-ARC1 and S-ARC1 M, are available in 6kA and 10kA breaking capacity respectively and provide protection against over- currents and arc faults. When combined with a Residual Current Circuit Breaker (RCCB) as an upstream device, the S-ARC1 series provides the best solution for complete switchboard protection.
