IT systems are only ever noticed when they fail. The new Han Protect connector solution from HARTING, a German manufacturer of electrical and electronic connectors, cable assemblies, and industrial networking equipment, aims to help simplify troubleshooting in the event of failures.
Large buildings like data centres require a Building Automation System (BAS) to control Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC), lighting, power supply, core IT, and security systems. The control cabinets for those subsystems are built with fused terminal blocks or circuit breakers to protect the automation devices against short-circuits or overcurrent.
In the event of a short circuit, fixing the fault and finding the broken fuse is a time-consuming task that must be performed by expensive skilled workers. The fault may not even be in the switch cabinet, it could also be in the device itself. Both possibilities must therefore be checked and sometimes several control cabinets need to be examined before the fault can be isolated.
With Han Protect, HARTING have developed a new connector that seeks to simultaneously simplify protection and reduce installation space in the control cabinet. Inside the connector (designed in the Han 3A format), there is an insulation body that adapts an M12A-coded five-pole connector and integrates a 5×20 mm miniature fuse. In the event of a short circuit, the fuse ensures that the supply to the connected units is quickly interrupted.
A red LED on the Han Protect clearly identifies the blown fuse and should enable quick, simple, and tool-less replacement without opening the cabinet. Due to the external mounting of the housings, up to 30% of installation space for connectors can be saved inside the cabinet.
The main advantage of Han Protect is that extensive fuse terminal blocks are no longer required. The control units remain protected while the connected systems can be started up again quickly.
Some benefits include:
• Increased system availability due to reduced Mean Time To Repair (MTTR).
• Increased efficiency in maintenance due to visual identification of blown fuses outside of the control cabinets.
• Space savings of up to 30% for control cabinets by eliminating extensive fuse terminal blocks inside of the control cabinet.
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