Industrial equipment located in the "field" is exposed to electrical noise, power surges, and transient events such as static discharge or even, near by lightning strikes.
Surprisingly, not all signal conditioners protect against transients! Typically, an industrial signal conditioner will offer some over voltage protection along with signal amplification or signal attenuation. An Instrument ClassTM Signal Conditioner from Dataforth provides several more benefits:
1. Transient Protection as defined by ANSI / IEEE (see App Note)
2. Up to 240VAC input CONTINUOUS over voltage protection
3. Signal noise filtering using 6 or more poles (modified Butterworth filter)
4. Three-way 1500Vrms CONTINUOUS transformer isolation
5. Ten-segment hardware linearization to conform to +/-0.015% of true span
One of the functions of the Dataforth line of signal conditioning products is the protection of control room equipment from the many hazardous conditions which exist in the field. All Dataforth products are designed with the field inputs or field outputs protected against transient events as defined by the ANSI/IEEE specification C37.90.1-1989 (formerly IEEE-472).
The typical open circuit Surge Withstand Capability (SWC) test wave forms as defined by the ANSI/IEEE specification are shown Dataforth's Application Note AN506 Figures 1 and 2. Repetition rate for the test wave forms is at least 50 tests per second with total test duration of at least 2 seconds. Therefore, these figures reveal that Dataforth's Signal Conditioners are designed to withstand at least 100 'hits' of 3KV declining sinusoid and 5KV of fast nanosecond transients!
Application Note AN506 (1 page, 104Kb pdf file)
Application of these wave forms to the signal conditioners will render the measurement useless while they are applied. The wave form energy will be dissipated within the signal conditioner and neither the signal conditioner nor the control room equipment will be damaged.
Remember, our Application Engineers can assist you with signal conditioner selection and configuration over the phone or via fax and email. Call Dataforth at 520-741-1404 (fax 520-741-0762) or Email techinfo@dataforth.com. | 
