Fuse Monitoring System
Neoteric Digital Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is a Fuse Monitoring and Automatic Changeover System manufacturer in Delhi (NCR), India. This product is used at Indian Railways signaling installations as automatic standby fuse arrangement.
Commonly referred to as Fuse Alarm System as well as Fuse Monitoring & Indication System with Automatic Changeover, this system aims to minimize downtime of signalling equipment due to transient line faults.
What is Fuse Monitoring cum Auto-Changeover?
Fuse Monitoring System cum Automatic Changeover is a product used by Indian Railways signaling. The Indian Railways signaling system uses relays for control of various signaling devices and gear. These relays, devices etc. are powered by 12V DC / AC to 110V DC / AC power supplies. In order to protect the devices, relays and power supplies, fuses of various capacities are used. Occasionally, the fuse blows off due to line transients causing the relays, devices etc. to lose power causing signals to drop, or causing other faults in the Indian Railways signaling system. This may cause a train to halt or other delays till the fuse is replaced.
In order to prevent the above-mentioned scenario, the Fuse Monitoring and Automatic Changeover system is recommended. This system will continuously monitor various fuses at the Indian Railways signaling installation. If a fuse blows off, causing an open circuit, the system will immediately close the circuit again by bringing in the circuit a standby fuse of the same rating.
The automatic standby fuse arrangement builds redundancy in the system that prevents a single transient fault from causing trains to stop or delays to occur. This is equivalent to a self-restoration type fuse with the benefit of zero-resistance in the circuit.
How does Fuse Monitoring cum Auto-Changeover system work?
The fuse monitoring circuit continuously monitors the output of a given fuse via an optically isolated circuit. This fuse monitoring circuit is so designed to cause minimum load on the main signaling installation of Indian Railways. A separate power supply powers the internal circuit of the fuse alarm system which takes the necessary actions incase a fuse is blown.
Monitoring the fuse is just half of problem. Getting to know that a fuse has blown is not very useful, because the circuit in which the fuse was placed is now open and the devices that were dependent on the given circuit will stop functioning or will malfunction.
This system has a standby fuse arrangement. These fuses are mounted on the front of the changeover panel. What gives this system real-world utility is that it automatically changes over to a standby fuse of the same rating as the original main fuse that was blown. This prevents signals to drop or dependent devices to malfunction. This also gives the supervisor of the signaling installation more reaction time to fix the problem of the blown fuse. Hence the name Fuse monitoring and indication system with automatic changeover.
What are the different names of Fuse Monitoring and Automatic Changeover System?
The Fuse Monitoring and Automatic Changeover System is know by many different names:
- Fuse Alarm System
- Fuse Alarm Panel
- Fuse Alarm Circuit
- Fuse Failure Alarm System
- Fuse Monitoring System with Automatic Changeover
- Fuse Monitoring System cum Automatic Changeover
- Fuse Monitoring Relay
- Fuse Monitoring Unit
The system is purchased by Indian Railways through Fuse Alarm System Tender process.
How would someone know if a fuse has blown?
On the front panel of this fuse alarm system is one red and one green LED per fuse for both main and standby fuse. A green LED represents a healthy state of the fuse and a red LED represents that the fuse has been blown. So if a fuse of the fuse relay has OK then the green LED will light up and the red LED will stay off. If the fuse blows, then the green LED will turn off and the red LED will light up. This way one can know which fuse has blown by just looking at the front panel and take necessary action.
The fuse indicator cum automatic changeover system also has a built in buzzer that turns on when a fuse is blown. This audio alarm will alert anyone in the vicinity of the fuse alarm system if a fuse is blown.
However, fuse-monitoring alarm is normally installed in relay rooms that are unmanned, and hence there is nobody present there to see the LED or hear the alarm. This problem can easily be overcome by extending the alarm that is raised by the fuse monitoring system using a compatible alarm extension unit. This alarm extension unit can be placed in any room that is constantly manned. Thus if a fuse blows in the relay room, an audio-visual alarm will be generated in another manned room and thus necessary action can be initiated from the manned room.
Can we get to know of fuse blown via SMS?
We have developed not only fuse monitoring cum automatic changeover system, we have also developed a compatible GSM / GPRS modem that can be installed at the Indian Railways signaling installation along with fuse monitoring systems. The modem can send SMS to 4 (or more if required) persons incase a fuse is blown. Various details like site name or fuse type etc. can be programmed on customer request. The modem is designed such that setting and changing phone numbers can be done in a simple and secure way.