Eaton has announced the global launch, at InnoTrans 2018 of ADR, of a new product family from Eaton’s Heinemann Hydraulic Magnetic Circuit Breakers (HMCB) range.
Designed in Switzerland, ADR fills an important void in the company’s HMCB offer, which Eaton signals as a key breakthrough for the market.
The circuit breaker guarantees electrical protection of equipment in use in harsh environments, such as railways, without derating the tripping point in the event of temperature variations.
Critically, the breaker is compatible with a standard 17.5mm Miniature Circuit Breaker for mounting on a DIN 35mm rail. This means railways and train operating companies can benefit from HMCB’s improved performance without having to redesign electrical equipment cabinets or change panels and connecting interfaces, improving the viability of potentially valuable retrofit and upgrade projects.
HMCB offers numerous advantages over conventional Thermo-Magnetic Circuit Breaker (TMCB) technology.
- For example, nuisance tripping from high ambient temperatures is eliminated as HMCB only responds to current variations, not changes in temperature. Changes in oil viscosity following increases in temperature onboard trains decrease trip response times, protecting equipment that might be vulnerable at higher ambient temperatures.
- HMCB can also eliminate transient current surges, another cause of nuisance tripping, with a high degree of precision and without reducing overload protection. In addition, Hydraulic-magnetic control of the tripping mechanism means that the time delay is inversely proportional to the size of the overload, speeding up the response to large overloads and short circuits where the potential danger is higher.
- While clearly a logical step for rolling stock operators and train manufacturers, until now replacing DIN mounted TMCB with HMCB has been far from straightforward. The HMCB connector is different and the size of the device is usually bigger than the standard TMCB.
“Eaton has achieved a major breakthrough with ADR,” says Alexandre Zint, Heinemann product manager at Eaton.
“The new technology is designed to be compatible with existing cabinets, which currently support thermal circuit breakers, enabling users to benefit from the improved performance traditionally associated with HMCB devices but without major modifications to rolling stock. Installing this technology can also significantly reduce the weight of these components and fulfils Eaton’s objective to build better and safer trains.”
Already some train and industrial machine manufacturers are evaluating how they can integrate ADR, and Eaton is confident the technology will deliver superior performance.
“ADR opens the door to new customers who were reluctant to change their integration design to upgrade their circuit breaker technology,” Zint continues. “It is also suitable for manufacturers looking to reduce the space occupied in their electrical cabinets. ADR is 17.5mm wide compared with 19mm in a standard HMCB, meaning that for every 12 HMCB installed, you could install 13 ADR”.
“We look forward to meeting both old and new customers at InnoTrans to discuss how they might benefit from ADR, and our other electrical and hydraulic technology solutions,” Zint concludes.
Download the white paper to learn more about the new HMCB range.
Eaton at InnoTrans 2018
At this year’s InnoTrans (at Messe Berlin from September 18-21), Eaton will demonstrate its latest electrical and hydraulic technology solutions, which are enabling rail operators and rolling stock OEMs to build better and safer trains and helping to secure a sustainable future. Find out more by visiting us in Hall 9, stand 301.
