Soft starters just don't know when to give up

Product quality does count, as evidenced by a recent example where a Felcos soft starter, manufactured by Fairford Electronics over 15 years ago, was returned for repair.

Product quality does count, as evidenced by a recent example where a Felcos soft starter, manufactured by Fairford Electronics over 15 years ago, was returned for repair.

The problem as it turned out had nothing to do with the soft starter and much to do with a faulty motor.

After a brief overhaul and replacement of a thyristor, the Felcos unit, which could be over 20 years old, is now back in service.

The Felcos unit is one of a number employed by Gates Power in Dumfries.

It is used on a conveyor drive motor in the production of transmission belts for industry.

The atmosphere in which the soft starter operates is arduous, but this has never affected its reliability.

However, what did cause a problem recently was a major fault on the motor that the Felcos unit was controlling.

This caused the soft starter to fail.

The enquiry trail for spares for the unit quickly revealed how old the unit was.

Electronics specialist, David England of DEV Engineering, who was tasked with the repair, telephoned Fairford for service and repair data concerning the unit.

After expressing some initial surprise at the age of the unit, engineers at the soft starter manufacturer were quickly able to provide the information required and the unit was repaired.

"We were initially surprised because the Felcos units have operated so reliably over time that they have basically been forgotten about", said David Bennett MD of Fairford.

"Recently, we received a service enquiry from a water treatment company that had fitted one of our soft starters over 15 years ago.

The unit worked so well that it was only during a refurbishment that the company thought they'd better replace it with a newer version, even though it was still working perfectly satisfactorily.

I think that, with examples like these, the quality of our products speaks for itself.

We certainly have no doubts on this score, as evidenced by our introduction of a 5-year warranty on all of our products".

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