On the MTL AC mains panels surge protection cut sheets they indicate the product is for

No, a 120/240V single phase (split phase) is a unique electrical service mainly seen only in the Americas and Japan. The 120/240V single phase (split phase) products have two separate 120V legs a neutral and a ground. Products designed for this service will not work on 230V or 240V single phase systems. Products designed for 120/240V single phase (split phase) applications would be immediately damaged when connected to 230V or 240V single phase services.

All standard MTL surge products have a 10 year warranty

Simply stated the 10 year “no fuss” warranty means that if the product fails within the 10 year period it will be replaced. This warranty includes damage for lightning or from utility power faults. This means that you can be assured that you will not have to purchase another suppressor for this application for at least 10 years. This warranty goes well beyond most other competitors who only warrant their products from failures due to their materials or workmanship. Most do not cover failures due to lightning or utility power faults.

What is the advantage of installing AC mains protectio

Without this protection, any large surge events coming on the AC mains utility line will pass on through the service entrance panel and will be seen on all the electrical wiring throughout the site. With the proper protection at the AC mains service entrance the large surge event can be reduced down to a controllable level thus limiting the voltage seen throughout the site.

Most MTL surge protection devices for signal and communication devices indicate t

This allows our surge protection devices to have a high surge current capacity (so they are not easily damaged from nearby lightning strikes) and precise limiting voltage characteristics (so the voltage seen at your equipment has been limited to a very low level).

I have a control cabinet and some transmitters I want to protect

No, if surge current is present on the signal lines it will be seen on both ends of the lines. Properly protecting the power and signal lines at the control cabinet end will only protect the control cabinet. Surge protection must also be installed at the transmitters if they are to be protected.

What type of information do I need to know when selecting the correct model surge prote

You would need to know :

1. The type of communication line (i.e. RS232, RS485, RS422, CAT 5 Ethernet)
2. The number of wires to be protected
3. Type of connector if a connector is required.
   

What type of information do I need to know when selecting the

The following information would be required:

1. Operating voltage of the signal line
2. Maximum load current that will be present on the line
3. Operating frequency if it is high frequency signal
4. Number of wires to be protected
5. Type of connector if a connector is required.
   

Should I install a separate ground for the surge protection device?

No, the surge suppressor should be grounded to the same ground reference as the equipment it is protecting.

My transmitter only cost $1,000.00 why should I consider s

There are many things to consider when you are justifying the cost to protect. More important than the actual replacement cost of the transmitter is the loss of the function of the transmitter. Usually the functional loss associated with the loss of the transmitter for a period of time is the main justification in providing protection. Another justification to consider is the labor cost and travel cost that could be incurred in the repair.

Is lightning my only concern when I am considering surge protection?

No, actually the majority of premature equipment failures from surge impulses are caused by much lesser events than direct lightning strikes. Small electrical impulses caused from other users on our same power grid, utility grid switching, electrical motors, and many other sources cause the majority of surge related failures in today’s electronic equipment. These smaller impulses will degrade the minute internal junctions inside IC chips over time and cause premature failure.

Even if the incoming phone lines are protected do I need additional protect the telephone lines?

The protection the Phone Company provides is there mainly for personal safety to prevent lightning from migrating in on their wires and causing personal injury. It provides little protection for sensitive electronic communications equipment. It provides primary protection but does not eliminate the need for secondary protection at the equipment.

Why is your protection more expensive than others I have found?

The MTL surge protection devices are actually medium priced. There are many more expensive devices on the market as well as the low cost commodity devices. If you look at the four main factors: Price, Packaging, Performance, and Safety, the MTL product offering is the best in the industry. MTL offers complete solution plans, from the AC power service entrance down to the individual equipment and all the control/communication lines in between.

All my data lines run inside the building, why do I need to protect them?

Even though all data lines stay within the building, communication interfaces are still susceptible to damage. There are two reasons for this. 1. Induced voltages from a nearby lightning strike when control/communications lines run near electrical power wires, metal in the building structure, or near lightning rod ground leads. 2. Differences in AC power voltage references between two devices connected together by control/communication lines. When an event, such as a nearby lightning strike, migrates in on the AC power, individual equipment within the building can see large voltage reference differences. When these devices are connected together by low voltage control/communication lines, the control/communication lines try to equalize the difference, thus causing damage to the interface chips.

Is full protection going to be too expensive?

Full protection is one of the most inexpensive insurance policies you can buy. The cost of system inavailability is far more expensive than proper protection. One major surge event in a ten-year period far outweighs the cost of protection.

Why do I need to protect data/control lines?

Data and control interfaces suffer many times more damage from surges than do power supplies. Power supplies normally have some type of filtering and operate at higher voltages than do control or communication interfaces. Low voltage control and communication interfaces normally interface directly into the equipment through a driver or receiver chip. This chip normally has both a logic ground reference as well as the communication reference. Any substantial difference between these two references will damage the chip.

We’ve never had any problems with surges, why do we need surge protection?

There are not many areas of the world today that do not experience surge-related incidents. Lightning is only one of the many causes of transient surge related problems. Today’s modern electronic equipment is much smaller, much faster, and much more susceptible to transient related problems than was the last generation of equipment. The sheer number of control and communication devices interlinked together in today’s networks make their susceptibility many times greater. These are new problems that were not nearly as frequent with previous generations of control equipment.

We are based in an area with very little lightning, why do we need surge protection?

Many areas of the world do not experience as much lightning related problems as others. As much as companies today depend on their control and network systems, the system availability has become paramount. For most companies, a single surge related incident in a ten-year period, which causes the loss of system availability, would more than pay for proper protection.

We have good grounding, do we still need surge protection?

A good ground is important for surge protection devices (SPD) to work properly. AC power SPD’s are designed to divert surge current to ground by providing the least resistive path. Without surge protection on the AC power, the surge current will look for other paths to a good ground. In many cases this path is found through electric/electronic equipment. Once the dielectric strength of the components in electronic equipment has been surpassed large currents begin to flow through the sensitive electronics thus causing failure.

Our equipment is connected to a UPS, do we still need surge protection?

UPS systems play a very important part in an overall power protection plan. They are designed to provide good clean uninterruptible power to critical equipment. They provide no protection for the communication and control lines found in today’s network type environments. They also do not normally provide AC power protection to the many nodes connected within the network. The surge protection elements found within even a very large UPS is very small in comparison to stand-alone SPD’s. Normally around 25 to 40kA. In comparison, our smallest AC entrance protector is 70kA and our largest is 600kA.