Access Control – Surge and Lightning Protection
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2012
Wed
04
Jul
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Information supplied by Paul van As - LV Protection - Divisional Manager, Surgetek
Many companies are reliant on their access control systems for security as well as time and attendance records. The continuous functioning of these systems are thus vital to any organisation or company to ensure that they do not suffer major financial losses due to downtime, loss of productivity or even theft.
The access control systems used by most companies have become highly sophisticated, especially with the use of biometric readers. The installation of these systems has also become a lot easier with most making use of the existing data network. Unfortunately, some access control points are situated some distance away from the building and this leads to data cables leaving the building to connect to these remote points, typically parking area boom gates and turnstyles.
Surge Technology has been approached by many companies to assist with the surge and lightning protection problems experienced with these systems. In most cases the solution is very simple as the systems have limited exposure to lightning surge currents. All that is required is the installation of power surge protection, typically our DEHNguard M TT or our Copa HDO 280/T as close to the equipment as possible. These units are designed to withstand peak surge currents of up to 40 kA (8/20) and limit the voltage to acceptable levels.
The DEHNguard Access Control Surge Arrestor
To protect the data cables we normally install our Copa UGKF In-Line 100 Base T surge arrester, which is designed to withstand the typical surges induced into the UTP data cabling.
In some cases the systems make use 1 Gbit Power Over Ethernet lines (POE) and for these systems we recommend that a DEHNpatch be installed. This unit is CAT 6 certified and can be used on lines up to 48 V and can be mounted on a DIN rail. These units are designed to repeatedly withstand peak surge currents of 10 kA and limit the voltage to acceptable levels.
Many of the biometric readers make use of a Wiegan protocol which appears to be relatively sensitive to lightning induced services. Surge Technology was approached by one of the larger manufacturers of these systems to assist with the problems they were experiencing on the Wiegan protocol. Surge Technology manufactured a specific surge arrester for Wiegan making use of the Copa 8-wire module and this has proven to be very successful in many high lightning incident areas.
It must be noted that all Surge Technology surge arresters are designed to run trouble free and should be capable of withstanding numerous surges. We have some clients who have had their surge arresters installed in high lightning incident areas for over 15 years and have never had to replace the surge arresters or the equipment that the units are protecting.
The same approach to surge and lightning protection can be used on data system such as CCTV, fire alarm panels, instrumentation and computer networks, to name but a few.
DEHN is represented locally by Surgetek.
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