Case Studies

Fluke. Keeping your world
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Fluke Corporation
PO Box 9090, Everett, WA USA 98206
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PO Box 1186, 5602 BD
Eindhoven, The Netherlands
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ax (31 40) 2 675 222
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ax (9
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eb access: http://www.fluke.com/
©2005 Fluke Corporation. All rights reserved.
Printed in U.S.A. 2/2005 2429548 A-US-N Rev A
Fluke 43B to trigger automati
-
cally whenever an inrush event
occurred and captured all data
for analysis.
The team also did a data
comparison for the different
chillers, to definitively pinpoint
the cause. This data was
printed out in a report for
further analysis.
“We then went back to the
client and produced documen-
tation showing how the system
was working and what relay
adjustments were necessary.
With the information gathered
from the Fluke 43B, we were
able to adjust the relay to the
right level and set it for the
correct delays,” said Ken.
Thus informed, the client
made the critical decisions
necessary to quickly rectify the
problem.
Professional tools
Ken has strong views when it
comes to consultancy. The only
way to effectively solve the
problem is to find the root
cause. Band-aid solutions will
not work.
That’s why QPM insists on
Fluke quality instrumentation.
“I have been using Fluke
tools for over 20 years,” he
said. “When I bring out the
Fluke meter, people know that
this is industry quality. Our
customers know that when we
read data, the results cannot be
blamed on the instrumentation
because it is faultless.”
“We proudly show the
instrument which captured
the data, because people trust
Fluke instrumentation
. Branding
is important to us, but so is
reliability.”
While each feeder is ideally
hooked up to only one chiller,
under emergency situations
both chillers should be able to
utilize the same feeder if
needed.
“Unfortunately, on that after-
noon, it was necessary to utilize
both chillers through the same
feeder,” said Ken. “All went
well when the first chiller came
up. But when the second chiller
kicked in, the feeder tripped the
entire air-con system.”
This was bad news. With
two other malls located within
a 1 km radius, shoppers would
be running to the nearby
competitors the moment
ambient temperature reach
uncomfortable levels.
Immediately, the mall
brought in the air-con special-
ists to do a situation analysis.
However, despite their best
efforts, they could not locate
where the fault originated.
Eventually, the mall decided to
call in electrical professionals.
Finding faults
Explained Ken, “When we
arrived at the mall, we started
gathering the basic facts. That
was when we deduced that the
trip could be caused by an
inrush. However, it required
more than just deduction to
spur remedial action. We
needed documented proof, and
we also needed to locate any
other causes of the trip.”
This is where the Fluke 43B
Power Quality Analyzer came to
good use. With the portable
analyzer on hand, the team
c
ould immediately see what
was happening
. Using the
Inrush function, they set the
Besides the Fluke 43B, QPM
is also looking at supplementing
its range of Fluke instruments
with the new Fluke 430 Series
Power Quality Analyzer. This
would give QPM the additional
benefit of testing all three
phases simultaneously. The 430
Analyzer also automatically
calculates whether loads are
balanced and captures events
as short as five microseconds.
With the new three-phase
analyzer in QPM’s family of
professional tools, the power
quality management consul-
tanc
y is set to raise the bar in
providing top service quality to
its customers.
2 Fluke Corporation Business-critical tripping problems in Singapore shopping mall
Documented proof of the inrush current measurements captured by
the Fluke 43B.