Lightning protection

[Jiri Toman]

A PLC based system consisting of 7 REM I/O panels
and a PLC5/30 CPU controls motorized gates on the perimeter of the plant. Each REM I/O panel contains 1794-ASB comm module, power supply and digital I/O. In addition there are ground loop controllers
and motor starters in each panel.
One of these REM I/O panels got hit by lightning.
It took out all controls in the panel and in addition it took out all
(7) 1794-ASBs.
Does anyone have any good idea on how to protect these panels
so that it would not happen again?
I can understand that the panel which got hit is fried but what is
worse is that all modules connected to REM I/O got fried too!
Any ideas?
Thanks.

 

[Marsupilami]

Hello,

We had the same accident, lightning struck the communication line from a philips plc and the result was the same all the remote io was dead.

We placed overvoltage protections from phoenix contact to prevent this from happening again. But they dont give 100% garantee. (lightning is unpredictible)

In another installation we anticipated this problem and connected all our remote io with fiber.

Greetz,

Marsupilami

 

[JorgeR]

Seems like someone should make an isolator for this. I'm only guessing though.

 

[Ken Roach]

The best lightning suppression you can get is from Transtector, Inc. out in Hayden Lake, Idaho. I recently spent a week on the Snake River rafting through Hell's Canyon and was pelted by some truly impressive thunderstorms. Those guys in Idaho really know their lightning.

They do have some units that are meant specifically for DH+ and RIO networks. They've changed their model numbers in recent years, but we used to recommend model FSP4002NR for RIO/DH+ networking.

Knowbase G15914

 

[Jiri Toman]

Thanks for your help. I have selected Transtector #FSP4002MC
which superceeds FSP4002NR. It's 149.00 each. Which is not too bad.