Multichannel circuit breakers – Compact and intelligent

When it comes to protecting loads at the 24 V level, conventional circuit breakers are steadily losing ground to electronic circuit breakers. Besides tighter tolerances and a more compact design, these offer further advantages that can really add value within a system if used correctly. When teamed with a higher-level control system, electronic circuit breakers support, via a digital input and output, active switching on or off of any output channel, resetting of tripped circuits and simultaneous reporting of current operating and error statuses. BLOCK multichannel circuit breakers only need up 5.25 mm per channel with all 8-channel modules and can be integrated into the overall control and monitoring process.

 

The advantages of our multichannel circuit breakers

◼︎  Reliable switch-on of high capacities (> 50.000 μF)

◼︎  Optimum tripping characteristic for any application

◼︎  Adjustable tripping current per channel

◼︎  Group alarm signal for simple diagnosis

◼︎  Sequential and load-dependent switching-on of channels

◼︎  Comprehensive single-channel diagnosis

◼︎  Remote reset of tripped channels

The tripping time depends on the level of overcurrent. In the event of a short circuit, the defective circuit will shut down within a few milliseconds. The level of the short circuit current depends on the current limiting of the feeding power supply as well as the line resistance.

ECONOMY SMART - Electronic circuit breaker with thermomagnetic characteristic

Economy Smart circuit breakers with thermomagnetic characteristic provide an economical alternative to conventional circuit breakers. They also ensure reliable tripping even in the event of a high line resistance. This makes the circuit breakers ideal for use in standard machine production.

BASIC SMART - Electronic circuit breaker with active current limiting

The Basic Smart circuit breakers guarantee maximum system availability. In the event of circuit overload, only the faulty current paths are reliably switched off without affecting the remaining circuits due to an active current limiting of 1.7 times the rated current.

The constant current limiting of 1.7 times the rated current enables especially high-capacity loads to be switched on reliably. Two switch-off points within the tripping characteristic allow a temporary increase in current fl ow caused by start-ups, breaking processes, speed and direction changes of DC motors.

The NEC Class 2 circuit breaker has a selfadjusting current limiting that prevents the output power from exceeding the 100 W limit.

BASIC FIX - Electronic circuit breaker with active current limiting

If circuits are designed with the same current values for the circuit breaker in a number of applications, the Basic Fix circuit breakers represent the most economical basis.

Slim design frees up ample cabinet space

The comparison of 8 protected circuits clearly demonstrates the reduced space requirement – a width of only 5.25 mm per channel for the Power Compact electronic circuit breaker.

Space requirement 8 channels

Circuit breaker Power Compact
Width: 5.25 mm / channel

Space requirement 8 channels

Circuit breaker
Width: 18 mm / channel

Space requirement 8 channels

Circuit breaker with auxiliary switch
Width: 18 + 9 mm / channel

Sequential switching

The power on of integrated output channels is time-delayed and load-dependent. As soon as the adjusted trip current of the output channel falls below, the next channel will be switched on. The inrush current of the whole device is levelled off, as the overdimensioning of the power supply is not necessary.

Comparison of 8 protected circuits

In addition to a range of technical benefi ts, in many applications, switching to an electronic circuit breaker solution also has economical advantages.

Conventional circuit breakers

BLOCK circuit breakers

*     Due to optimized distribution of the inrush
**   Without current spikes for tripping of circuit breakers