Web Site Helps Manufacturers Fight Dirty Power

Manufacturers now have a new resource to learn about and combat power quality issues. SoftSwitching Technologies, which offers solutions for fighting disruptions in voltage, current, and frequency, has created a web site, www.SoftSwitch.com, a comprehensive source of information on power quality and power quality solutions. These disruptions, or "dirty power" events, can slip into any manufacturing facility, cascade through delicate systems and severely impair automated operations. The company says that 98% of these events are voltage sags that last less than two seconds. However, this is ample time to cause downtime, damage, and frantic diagnostics of equipment and software, when the real cause lies inside the lines that power them. "With the launch of our new web resource, we hope to better help manufacturers understand the cause of their mysterious and expensive downtime as well as determine appropriate solutions," Rob Loomis, president and CEO of SoftSwitching Technologies, said in a statement. "While the issue of power quality versus power reliability is well understood and taken seriously in Asia and elsewhere around the globe, most U.S. manufacturers have no clue that power quality could be the reason for a majority of their unknown equipment failures," he added. "In fact, some of our best customers prefer their competition stay in the dark about dirty power, because it gives them a competitive edge and they’d prefer not to lose it."