Critical or sensitive electrical equipment in a plant, including electric motors, drives, PLCs, HVAC systems, lighting and IT equipment, often fail because of fluctuations in the mains voltage or high levels of harmonic distortion. But pro-active monitoring of circuits, combined with preventive maintenance, can extend equipment life and avoid costly production downtime.

The Voltage Performance Monitor (VPM) from Ideal Industries is a low cost (from £275), easy-to-use handheld device that simply plugs in close to where your critical or sensitive equipment is located. The device can be left to recognise only those voltage events such as spikes, sags and swells, that exceed preset thresholds defined by International standards such as EN50160. The device can be used to check the power supplied to a wide range of plant and buildings equipment including PLCs, electric motors, switches, air conditioning systems, lighting ballasts, IT equipment and other utility operations.

On routine maintenance patrols, a maintenance engineer can quickly verify whether the voltage meets the equipment's needs and can determine whether problems are related to the quality of the power supply or the equipment itself. Excessive harmonics near sensitive devices can also be checked.

A custom option also allows you to set your own thresholds if required. All data is displayed on the screen, so there is no need for cables, software or reference manuals.