The first Type 2 SPD with Push-in connection

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Written by Mark Lloyd, Senior Product Manager- Power Supplies & Surge Protection

When we recently updated our Plugtrab SEC range of Type 3 surge protection devices we took the re-design as an opportunity to add push-in technology as an option. This is in addition to the more traditional screw connection. Push-in has proved equally as popular as screw connection, if not more so.

Up until that time push-in was only really an option on SPDs designed to protect signal lines. With Phoenix Contact being the industry’s foremost proponent of push-in technology, it was only a matter of time before this was expanded within our power surge protection range to include Type 2 SPDs.

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The end of an era, the sun is setting on SFN.

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Written by Gareth Chamberlain, Product Manager- Cyber Security and IT Automation

Sometimes there is a product that is just there and has always been there. You think this product will last forever. But, alas, nothing lasts forever. The FL SWITCH SFN family came into the Phoenix Portfolio in 2011 and has been an incredible success since then, with Phoenix Contact becoming the market leader of unmanaged switches in the Industrial sector in 2015 and kept on growing year on year. So, as you can imagine, these switches have found themselves in all sorts of applications all around the world.

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Introducing Axioline Smart Elements

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Written by Tony Deane, Technical Manager

These days everyone wants more for less and as we all know, if the market demands something you must respond accordingly to stay ahead of the curve. Phoenix Contact have listened to the marketplace and launched an innovative, revolutionary and competitive I/O system to complement and enhance our AXIOLINE I/O range for the automation industry!

Introducing the AXIOLINE Smart Elements I/O range

With panel space, easy start-up and component costs being some of the major requirements of systems builders, the marketplace demands suppliers to react in order to help businesses maximise production and profits and minimise costs. Together with the system fieldbus options offered by the Axioline I/O system, Smart Elements is a definite game changer.

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A guide to connectivity in power electronics

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Written by Duncan Nicol, Sales & Marketing Manager- Device Connections

Solutions from the PCB to the field

Designing solutions with power electronics comes with many challenges including how to route the power from within the device to the outside world. Safety, heat loss, component size and conductor management are just some of the challenges to consider.

Figure 1: SPT Modular with voltages up to 1500V

Voltage is a key factor in managing some of the challenges. In the example of a step-up transformer, when the voltage increases, the current decreases but the power remains the same. The important factor here is that for the same power output the conductor size can be reduced if the voltage is increased, reducing losses in the process.

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Introducing EMpro Smart Energy Management Services: EMMA

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Written by Fraser Cowie, Product Manager- Interface

In a lot of small to medium businesses (SMEs) it is usually down to the plant or electrical manager (energy manager if they have one) to make sure that the company complies with the latest energy management standards – currently ISO 50001.

This can be on top of their day to day job and may mean lots of time spent producing energy data reports by manipulating excel spreadsheets.

To make this process fast and simple Phoenix Contact have launched a range of Smart Energy Management Services, called EMMA, that are accessed using the cloud, connectable EMpro energy meters.

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A new approach to configurable Sensor Actuator Cabling

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Written by Scott Mulholland, Product Manager- Industrial Connections.

Much more flexible MOQs (minimum order quantities) and scalable pricing (sometimes also referred to as ‘column’ pricing) has now been applied to SAC configurable cables. They are generally configurable by specifying cable type/colour (e.g. Black PUR cable) and cable length other than our standard cable lengths (e.g. you could specify 2m for instance). These changes have been introduced to help our customers needing lower quantities of a cable for prototyping development, for instance.

The reason for the changes is to offer the customer more flexibility with regard to the amount of configurable cables that they have to order. Prior to these changes, it was the norm for an MOQ of 25 pieces to be stated to the customer. The MOQ of 25 reflected the extra work incurred by our production in stopping the machines to run off a small batch of customer specified cables.

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The future of battery storage

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Written by Duncan Nicol, Sales & Marketing Manager- Device Connections

Back in my childhood I recall being envious of my cousin’s petrol remote control car, which compared with my humble battery model, was fast and satisfyingly noisy. But looking back, I was well ahead of the curve with my battery RC. Now with a full-size battery car sitting on the drive, it seems like the right choice and the future of mobility.  

Of course, one of the real benefits of having an electric car is the ability to charge overnight when energy prices are low and wake up every morning to a fully charged car. In the future it will also be possible to sell some of the car’s battery capacity back to the grid when demand is high and make money in the process.  

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No one wants a marker in their dinner!

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Written by Andy Neat, Senior Product Manager- Marking & Identification and Toolfox

First of all I hope you and your families are all safe and well, hopefully soon we’ll be back to normality which would be fine timing as Netflix has almost been exhausted in our house! Although the Joe Exotic and Carol Baskin’s feud did make for gripping television!

So today I’m going to talk about Food & Beverage identification and, what’s more, if this blog isn’t enough to wet your industrial marking appetite then at 3pm today you can see our latest Marking Monday video-cast which is also on… you guessed it, food & beverage identification.

So let’s crack on!

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PTV Terminals- for when visibility is key

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Written by Scott Mulholland, Product Manager-Industrial Components

Space is always at a premium in the modern cabinet or machine. As designers and engineers extract every bit of usable space on the din rail and from the cabinet space in general, this can potentially have a downside. The busier the cabinet gets, the requirement to quickly and safely identify terminals and/or conductors becomes even more important to be able to work both efficiently and safely. Higher densities of terminals and conductors will potentially lead to the markers on those terminals and conductors being harder to read (with conductors sometimes having to ‘loop’ over the markers, obscuring them from vision). Also, using multi level terminals, increase the number of conductors in a small space, and this can exacerbate the problem. 

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Smart design for smart buildings

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Written by Deepan Patel, Industry Manager- Interface

In my previous blogs I talked a lot about some of our great solutions for Building IOT. If you haven’t checked them out, you can here.

When it comes to designing requirements for a Smart Buildings solution, it is important to consider whether the design is robust or smart. Our solutions help engineers feel confident in their designs being robust and smart. This is achieved using our ILC2050 flexibility and software configuration tools, such as Project+, for designing and putting together hardware requirements for a project.

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