Handheld PD Hawk™ Swoops on Potential Switchyard Failures

LONDON, June 2, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Power-engineering specialist EA Technology has produced the world's most effective partial discharge locator for high-voltage air insulated switchyard equipment and it's here in the USA.

The only instrument of its kind, the rugged, handheld, battery-powered PD Hawk™ is straight forward to operate and uniquely fast and accurate. Allowing electrical engineers to scan entire switchyards in minutes and locate partial discharge emissions from a distance, the PD Hawk™ offers valuable time and cost savings and needs no specialized training to operate.

President of EA Technology's US subsidiary, Bill Higinbotham said: "Usually, the first sign of trouble network operators get is when an asset catastrophically fails causing costly damage and outages. The unique design of the PD Hawk™ enables operators to detect and locate internal partial discharge activity in live assets before they fail.

"Partial discharge is caused by insulation defects, including deterioration, faulty joints, poor terminations and mechanical damage and is a major factor in substation failures. Using the PD Hawk™ to detect partial discharge early can help achieve major savings for network operators by preventing these costly failures.

"Beyond detecting and locating partial discharge activity, the PD Hawk™ is an invaluable tool for providing information on the condition of switchyard assets for planning maintenance and replacement purposes."

The PD Hawk™ can be tuned to measure emissions in the 47-1000 MHz frequency range - its factory default of around 800 MHz is designed to tune out non-PD emissions including non-destructive corona activity and eliminate false readings from wireless sources such as TV towers and mobile phones.

The operator can safely listen to emissions on the PD Hawk™'s built-in speaker and/or over headphones; signals can also be viewed on the instrument's menu-driven color display as magnitude, frequency and pulse timing.

Supplied as a complete kit, including charger, carry case, headset and a download cable for Android devices, the easy-to-use PD Hawk™ is completely portable and can detect PD in all air insulated switchgear including circuit breakers, insulators, disconnects, surge arrestors, cable terminations, current transformers and voltage transformers.

It is also possible to record the PD on a handy, free app (available for all android devices), which allow the user to quickly send information to their office whilst out in the field.

For more information or to view the PD Hawk video, log on to http://www.eatechnology.com/instruments/partial-discharge-instruments/pd-hawk

SOURCE EA Technology