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Issue 33 - December 2000
Expansion efforts are continuing at Beckwith Electric and the outcomes are becoming more visible. Remodeling continues on the second floor while the ground floor production area continues to see new equipment moving in. Second Floor Expansion Area
The second floor expansion provides for a new R&D lab. The new lab will be about twice the size of the existing R&D lab. With the added space, the lab will more efficiently accommodate new equipment such as the recently purchased Cincinnati Sub-Zero Environmental Chamber. This chamber will be put to use to verify that Beckwith circuits work correctly in extreme temperatures and conditions. Ground Floor Expansion
Beckwith uses a screen printer to apply solder paste to a circuit board. Then the circuit board is passed through a pick and place machine that places the components in the proper place over the solder. Finally, the board is run through the reflow oven that heats the solder and permanently attaches the components to the board. Beckwith purchased an automated screen printer three years ago, two pick and place machines this year and had a reflow oven. Recent acquisitions included a second screen printer and a second reflow oven.
The screen printer that Beckwith purchased three years ago is the DEK 248. It aligns the PC board by the use of vision so it holds and maintains close tolerances when applying solder and allows for quick setup and teardown from one board to another. Because of its impressive accuracy, Beckwith decided to purchase a second DEK 248. Beckwith also purchased the Vitronics Soltec XPM 520 Reflow Oven. This oven uses convection heat which allows for more even heating of the solder, and the new oven comes with a UPS backup so it can be safely shut down in the event of a loss of power.
Stay tuned for more expansion news.
More Accurate LDC Introduced For Substation Application According to Tom Jauch, Manager of Application Engineering for Controls and Control Systems, the setting of the traditional R&X Line Drop Compensation (LDC) on transformer Load Tap Changing (LTC) transformers is not much better than a guess. This is true on any application where more than one distribution feeder is fed from the regulated bus. This is one of the reasons Beckwith Electric decided to include a second choice of LDC in its M-2001B Universal Digital Tapchanger Control. This second type, named LDC-Z, uses one input setting of Volts instead of the arbitrary setting of R & X of a non-existent circuit. Choice #1) Traditional Line Drop Compensation (LDC-R&X):
Purpose: To regulate the voltage at a point (load center) on a downstream line or feeder remote from the transformer or regulator bus. Method: The control internally calculates the line voltage drop between the controlled bus and the load center using the input current (including angle) and the R & X input values. The control automatically adjusts the bandcenter of the control to compensate the local voltage by an amount equal to the calculated voltage drop. (If the bandcenter setting is 120 V and LDC voltage drop calculation is 3 V, the new bandcenter will be 123 V. This causes the desired voltage level to appear at the load center.) Setting: R & X values are actually input as voltage values. These R & X voltage setting values are calculated as follows:
Results: LDC R & X correctly calculates and compensates for described line voltage drop by adjusting local voltage, regardless of load level or load power factor. Accuracy is limited by the accuracy of the actual R & X calculations. Choice #2) Line Drop Compensation (LDC-Z):
LDC-Z is more applicable for transformer voltage control applications where no single line for LDC R & X exists. Problems with setting the traditional LDC R & X result from: a) No single line impedance is applicable to the single control LDC-Z allows the user to specify a desired bus voltage increase at a specified load current level*. This is a one level voltage setting. At that transformer load current level, the control will increase the bandcenter setting by the LDC-Z setting amount. The control will automatically vary the compensation amount from 0 volts at no load to the LDC-Z setting amount at 200ma according to the active current level. For example, half of the setting amount @ 100 ma. Setting: The LDC-Z setting value is the desired voltage increase to occur at full rated CT primary current*. A setting calculation formula ratios a known desired voltage increase at any load level to the voltage increase at rated current (actual setting value) for input to the control.
When used in conjunction with the "Block Raise" and "Deadband" settings, also available on the M-2001B, the most effective distribution system load drop compensation can be obtained. Interested? For more information, contact Beckwith Electric at (727) 544-2326 or e-mail at marketing@beckwithelectric.com.
Basic Transformer LTC/Regulator Voltage Controls Transformer Paralleling Digital Universal Voltage Control Controls with Developing Technology Interested? For more information, contact Beckwith Electric at (727) 544-2326 or e-mail at marketing@beckwithelectric.com.
Another successful relay seminar! Beckwith Electric held its second annual Relay Seminar in Clearwater, Florida, October 15-20. The seminar was attended by 41 registrants who traveled from as far as Alaska, England and Brazil. Attendees spent five days building the background needed to understand the complex subject of generator, transformer and interconnection protection. Charles Mozina, Manager of Application Engineering for Protection and Protection Systems, and Dr. Murty V. V. S. Yalla, Vice-President of Research and Development/Engineering lead the instruction. Attendees commented positively on the vast knowledge base of the instructors, the thoroughness of the material, and even the hospitality offered by Beckwith Electric. Beckwith Electric is already planning the next relay seminar which will occur in the fall of 2001. If you would like to be notified of upcoming seminar details, complete the following form and either fax it to (727) 546-0121 or mail it to Beckwith Electric Co., Inc, 6190 118th Ave. N., Largo , FL 33773-3724.
Scott Cooper, Field Service Representative, joined Beckwith Electric Co. in 1997. His responsibilities include providing training, commissioning, and troubleshooting services of protective relays for customers. He is also instrumental in the testing of new relay products and custom-engineered systems. Prior to his promotion to Field Service Representative, Scott was an Electronics Technician at Beckwith Electric for two years where he tested protective relays and conducted failure analysis and individual component evaluation. Scott is currently working towards a degree in computer science and information systems. He is a member of IEEE and served in the U.S. Navy for six years in the nuclear reactor controls division. He also attended Naval Nuclear Propulsion Training-a program covering reactor plan operation and maintenance of instrumentation and control equipment; the Naval Nuclear Power School-a course which included 800+ hours of instruction in power plant operations and control, mathematics, physics, reactor theory, water chemistry, corrosion, and materials; and the Naval Nuclear Field Electronics Technician School-an intensive course in electronics and troubleshooting. Prior to joining Beckwith Electric, Scott was a senior technician with Seapower Engineering where he engineered, installed and repaired electrical and electronic systems, an inside sales specialist with Aampro Marine Products and an IT Specialist with Hilb, Rogal and Hamilton. Bob Schuyler, Customer Service Representative, is responsible for interfacing with the customers on all service issues, including responding to customer phone calls and conducting on-site service calls when required. Bob also acts as an interdepartmental liaison, following up on customer service issues with application engineers, product engineers, test and repair technicians and others, to "close the loop" and ensure that all issues are resolved satisfactorily. Charlie Stininger, Customer Service Technician, is responsible for product enhancements, modification, maintenance and repair. Charlie has several years of experience in testing and quality assurance. Prior to joining Beckwith Electric, he led the group responsible for testing production material and prototypes at Leland Electrosystems in Erie, Pennsylvania. Charlie has an A.S. degree in electronic engineering technology from the Erie Institute of Technology. Traci Vescovi, Customer Service Administrator, is primarily responsible for coordinating all post-sale activities involving Beckwith products, including assigning return material authorization numbers and tracking the status of all returns. Traci is also a member of the ISO 9000 Committee for Beckwith Electric. Traci has been with Beckwith Electric Company for eleven years, beginning as receptionist and then adding more responsibilities as a human resources aide. Working within three different departments, Marketing, Human Resources, and Quality Assurance, has allowed Traci to gain a variety of perspectives on customer service.
Our Web site continues to grow with the addition of new documents and products. Since September, we have added a demo of our SLIMcom™ software for the AutodaptiveŽSystem. Several products appear on the Web site for the first time including Adapter Panels, the Current Loop Interface Module and Autodaptive regulator controls. In the Document Center, we added several Technical Papers written by our Application Engineers. These papers detail such important issues as voltage regulation, synchronizing and motor bus transfer theory. People are an important part of Beckwith Electric. If you are looking for a career with Beckwith Electric, you can find our job listings at the new URL, www.beckwithelectric.com. To find out more about our employees, check out the expanded biography section under About Beckwith. Stay logged on to BeckwithElectric.com for more products and documents!
Articles from Issue 33, December 2000 of Beckwith Electric's Powerlines. |
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Beckwith
Electric will be holding a technical session on control applications in
conjunction with the ECNE's (Electric Council of New England) spring meeting.
The session will be held Wednesday, March 28, 2001 at the Crowne Plaza
Hotel in Nashua, New Hampshire. The session begins at 9:00 a.m. and will
include lunch. There is no cost to attend this session. Tom Jauch, Manager
of Application Engineering for Controls and Control Systems, will be conducting
the session. Topics will include:
