Transport safety. Power backup.
It would be quite correct to imagine the parts of the system as human organs. For example, video cameras are the eyes, glass break sensors are the ears, the processor is the brain, closers and barriers are the hands, etc. In this case, the power supply is the heart of the system, i.e. the organ that supplies energy to each part, and, accordingly, requires the same attitude as the heart.
We are convinced that all power supply manufacturers strive to create a quality product. However, there is a factor that affects the operation of the unit, and may escape the attention of the developer. This is the quality and nature of the input voltage of 220V.
Transport facilities are often located in areas where power supply characteristics may, to put it mildly, differ from those specified by GOST 220 +10 -15 V). The growth in demand for electricity outpaces the pace of development and renewal of power grids. A welding machine operating nearby, any powerful electric motor, incompetent service personnel, worn-out equipment — there are many reasons? The result is important: the consumer receives «from the socket» something other than what he expected, and the security system dies, as if someone had jabbed a stun gun into the heart.
That is why power supplies should include fuses at the input, calculate the range of operating voltages much wider than stipulated by GOST (for example, by using pulse conversion circuits) and install interference filtering systems. The latter is very important for the correct operation of the «eyes» — video cameras.
Like any developing company, we look to the future and evaluate it from the point of view of possible changes.
It can be assumed that the development of power supply systems for security systems with increasing complexity will follow the same path as the electric power industry: at first these were radial power supply schemes (one generator and many consumers), then they began to use systems with duplication (one consumer can be powered from two independent sources). Now in the electric power industry, ring schemes are used, i.e. all sources are combined into a ring, and the failure of one of the sources will be compensated by an even distribution of the load on all the others. The scale is certainly different, but the ideology is the same: to make the possible shutdown of the main power source the least painless.
Another, no less important, and gaining momentum factor in the construction of a power supply system is energy efficiency. More modern is the use of power supplies with high efficiency (pulse converters instead of transformers), as well as systems with the ability to rationally manage energy flows.
Thus, we should expect the appearance on the market of complex systems with control of power distribution to consumers, with the collection of information, including from the battery, as well as data on consumed power.
However, we are pleased to note that the units of our production are already successfully used at such facilities as the metro, railway, gas pipelines. For example, the series of power supplies BIRP Lis designed for use at facilities where a long power backup time is required. This may be not only a fire alarm, but also any other security system installed in a hard-to-reach place, for example, in a subway tunnel or at Russian Railways facilities. It is also very important to receive a signal about a power failure from such remote facilities in time; power supplies of the BIRP B series, which include a relay informing about the transition to battery power, cope with this task perfectly. Thus, we contribute to transport safety.
Life and work in the modern world are very closely connected with transport. Not only security market participants and transport workers are interested in its safety, but also any modern person. Due to the complexity of this task, we understand that the most effective and correct would be the following: power supply solutions for devices should be issued taking into account the requirements, knowledge and experience of manufacturers, installers and operating companies. That is why we are not only open to cooperation with manufacturers and developers, but we CALL on you: contact us! Our production base and your invaluable experience, put together, will become the reason for the emergence of new high-quality solutions and devices that work for the benefit of universal safety, including in transport.
Kamenev Aleksey Petrovich, executive director
Godgildiev Aleksandr Mikhailovich, leading manager
The article was published in the magazine “Security”, issue No. 2 for 2011