The short-circuit protection function integrated on Xtra power controllers from Gefran has recently obtained the international patent. Such a function protects the system and the power junctions in the device against transient current peaks and short-circuits without extra-rapid fuses or circuit breakers.

Xtra series devices react to sudden overloads in the controlled load by immediately tripping the solid-state power switch and going into a safe holding state. The energy developed by a short-circuit is minimized to prevent faults or hazardous stress on the circuit connected to the load. The system is ready to restore power immediately when the fault has been cleared.

The controllers can be reset with a button on the controller or with a command transmitted via Fieldbus, or can be set to restore power automatically, with the soft-start ramp, when the internal current sensing circuit detects that the short-circuit has been cleared (for example, with current spikes linked to momentary electric arcs).

The Xtra series provides several advantages: elimination of stocks of various extra-rapid fuses used as spare parts; system restart at any time without specialized personnel; resetting without opening the device or the electrical panel; smaller control junction, to be matched with specific circuit breakers; drastic reduction of machine downtime (approaching zero if due to momentary electric arcs); protection of solid-state controller with unlimited number of resetting; protection of process material and work cycle. The hot-blade cutting systems are amongst the machines that can benefit of such advantages.