Motor Circuit Breakers and their Benefits

Industrial are susceptible to injuries, such as shock or burns that can take place on the manufacturing floor due to electrical issues. While these incidents mainly occur during construction, maintenance, or testing phase, they can happen in normal operations as well. These accidents can be avoided by using efficient protection against electrical surge and following safe operating procedures.

Effective short-circuit current, and overload protection is needed to protect humans as well as machines against electrical power damages. Fuses are usually the most cost-effective measure for protecting from over current. They work well in applications with high fault current and are commonly used to protect transformers, power supplies, and motors.

The most significant disadvantage with a fuse is the requirement for replacement after an operation, unlike a circuit breaker, which can be easily reset. Also, fuses increase the risk of single phasing. So, while a fuse protects the system from a fault, the motor can be damaged by a single-phase condition.

Below are some key benefits of using motor circuit breakers:

Steady performance
Motor protection circuit breaker are carefully tested during manufacturing and can easily be retested during their operating life to maintain their performance.

Improved protection
The motor circuit breakers provide very reliable protection as their breaking capacity are very high and can trip much faster than any fuse. Moreover, circuit breakers trip on all three phases which helps in making sure that no damage is done to the motor.

Improved safety
As the connections inside a circuit breaker are enclosed inside a device, it represents no risk for the operators and enables the remote functionality. As circuit breakers do not require to be replaced frequently, it reduces the chances of accidents due to faulty replacement or handling.

Extended uptime
As circuit breakers trip instantly upon overload, no damage is caused to the motor. This was the downtime associated with replacement of damaged equipment by overload is considerably reduced, thus affecting the profitability of an operation.

Cost-effective
Though a single fuse is much cheaper than a circuit breaker, one circuit breaker can easily replace three fuses. Moreover, in the long run, the fuses need to be replaced after every incidence while the motor circuit breakers only require the push of a button for resetting. This makes them very cost effective in the long run.

Extended functionality
Circuit breakers can be improved to carry out additional protective functions, such as protection from a ground fault. They also enable systematic coordination between the breakers. Circuit breakers offer flexible designs that allow field-upgrading such as remote control, power meters, surge alarms, etc.

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