Safe capacitor discharge instrument

Seaward Electronic has introduced an instrument for the safe discharge of stored energy in large capacitors and electrically charged equipment.

The SD300 has been specifically designed to enable engineers to safely discharge high-power capacitors used for power factor correction and energy storage applications in the power generation, petrochemical, oil and gas, processing and motor drive control industries. No official or recognised means of safely discharging large capacitors in these applications exists and the SD300 unit incorporates a number of special features to counter the common but unauthorised and highly dangerous practice of discharging high-power capacitors with wires or screwdrivers.

The SD300 is a long-life, battery-powered tester that has been designed for use in situations with a maximum voltage of 1000 VDC and maximum capacitance of 1200 µF.

The failsafe design of the SD300 incorporates a two-handed, push-button operation to initiate and maintain the energy discharge, ensuring that the operator cannot come into contact with the live circuit. In addition, the operator is totally isolated from the discharged energy by a fully insulated and robust instrument case rated at IP66.

The instrument comes with fully shrouded fused test leads and includes an in-built test lead and fuse proving facility. Other safety features include an automatic pre-use self-test, protection against prolonged connection to live operating circuits and monitoring of critical component temperatures with automatic cut-off.

Once activated, the stored energy is discharged in 30 s or less and both analog meters and LEDs provide a visual indication of the state of the stored energy.