AMETEK Power Instruments is offering two power line carrier products that address the growing concern of RF interference caused by the use of 3G/4G “smart” phones and routers in substation environments.
According to the company, the new TC-10B/TCF-10B and Universal Power Line Carrier (UPLC) products are protected against changes in performance beyond specified tolerance, hardware damage, loss or corruption of memory, system resets and change of input or output states caused by RF interference.
“We learned this is an industry issue by monitoring our customers’ requirements,” Brian Hoffmann, Divisional Vice President of Ametek Power Instruments, said. “We then undertook specific laboratory testing to ensure that our products are immune to this type of interference. We are pleased to report that no product modifications were required, and that all of our products passed the tests as originally designed.”
AMETEK’s TC-10B/TCF-10B UPLC products were formally type tested to ANSI/IEEE C37.90.2, 1987 from 25 MHz to 1 GHz at 10 V/meter with no malfunctions. They also protect against an actively communicating 3G smartphone placed directly on top, front, and behind them with no malfunctions. In addition to the ANSI C37.90.2 requirements, the UPLCs were formally type tested up to 2 GHz (with a 1 kHz 80% AM modulation) at 35 V/meter with no malfunctions by a third-party laboratory per EN 61000-4-3:2002.
