Innovative Scalable Power Protection for Industrial Applications

June 23, 2007
Falcon Electric, Inc., an award-winning supplier of power protection and conversion solutions launches its FN Series UPS Plus family of parallel or N+1 redundant Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPSes) designed to meet the rigorous power demands of semiconductor fabrication, process control, manufacturing systems and industrial infrastructures with a scalable platform and N+1 redundancy. The new double-conversion on-line designed FN Series models achieve many technical milestones including a faster processor utilizing digital signal processing (DSP) technology, thereby improving performance, capability and reliability. The introduction of this new paralleled product family marks Falcon's foray into larger UPS systems (up to 24kVA). The new hardwired FN Series UPS will be available in various model configurations. All models support a hardwire connection to any 208-240Vac single-phase, 2-wire plus ground power source. Certain models provide a single, isolated 208-240Vac 2-wire plus ground output; other models provide an isolated 240/120Vac split-phase 3-wire plus ground output. In contrast to the current parallel UPS solutions offered in the marketplace, Falcon's innovative UPSes are stand-alone units that may be connected in parallel, providing low-cost, scalable solutions from 3kVA up to 24kVA. This approach eliminates the added expense of buying cabinets to house power and battery modules. "We wanted to give our customers a truly scalable solution that is easy to set-up and deploy,” stated Falcon's Vice President of Engineering, Michael Stout. "The FN Series UPS models can be quickly paralleled in order to scale up to the desired power level the users require. This way they're not paying for more power protection than they need.” When the FN models are configured in parallel, with the addition of one extra UPS, true N+1 redundancy can be achieved. For example, if 18kVA of N+1 redundant power is needed, four 6kVA UPS units would be connected in parallel. The paralleled UPSes communicate via a proprietary high speed serial bus. In the event one UPS unit malfunctions, it is immediately detected, taken off-line and isolated from the other functional units, while leaving the connected critical load unaffected. Servicing of the UPS is a simple matter of removing the affected unit. The internal UPS batteries are in user-replaceable and hot-swappable packs conveniently located behind the UPS front panel. Battery packs can be easily replaced in a few minutes, without having to remove the UPS from service. For users needing extended battery backup time, extended battery packs and chargers are available as an option. The system's true regenerative (double-conversion) on-line technology provides the highest level of protection against a wide spectrum of power problems including blackouts, brownouts, surges and transients. In addition, Power Factor Correction (PFC) circuitry greatly reduces harmonics that can adversely affect sensitive computers and electronic equipment. These features are significant as power outages and power glitches can cost organizations thousands – if not millions – of dollars in lost processes, transactions and productivity. For easy monitoring of the UPS systems, Falcon's UPSilon® computer shutdown and management software supports popular operating systems, including Windows® 95, 98, NT, 2000, Server, XP and Vista. It also supports Novell NetWare® 5&6, LINUX and FreeBSD. For remote management, users may purchase an optional SNMP/HTTP agent board that installs directly inside the UPS and provides a TCP-IP addressable, 10/100 Ethernet port.