About Sulphur Hexafluoride SF6:

SF6 is an artificial, inert and generally non-toxic gas (Maximum Allowable Concentration (MAC) of 1,000 ppmv). It is a well-known greenhouse gas (GWP of 23,900 times higher than CO2), with an atmospheric lifetime of 3,200 years.

Because of its environmental unfriendly attributes SF6 was included in the Kyoto Protocol with the aim of emission reduction. Due to its excellent insulating and arc quenching properties it is globally used as insulating gas in high and medium voltage equipment like substations, switchgears, circuit breakers, transformers etc.

The SF6-IR-Leak was particularly developed to pinpoint smallest leaks of SF6. With its fast response time and clear down after saturation the SF6-IR-Leak is an ideal tool to reduce environmental unfriendly and costly SF6-emissions.

 

Since more than 40 years sulphur hexaflouride (SF6) is used in the electricity industry as insulated and quenching medium for gas insulated substations (GIS) and circuit breakers (GCB). Even under ecological aspects there is no alternative to SF6 avalable until today (life cicle assessment). Arcing processes that belong to everyday’s operation of a GCB or partial discharge activity over a long period cause the decomposition of the SF6 to highly corrosive and toxic by-products.

These decomposition products react with the inner components of the equipment and reduce its surface stability so that even mayor breakdowns can become the consequence. The pre-requisite to form these decomposition products are reactants like water (H2O) and air (N2O).

Therefore organisations like the CIGRÉ (SF6-Recycling Guide), SOLVAY FLOUR (SF6 Producer) and the IEC 60480 recommend to regularily check the concentration of decomposition products as well as of moisture and the purity of the SF6 applying a condition based maintenance (CBM).

This can all be easily realized with the all-in-one product called SF6-Analyser.
 

Read more about SF6 here>>

A high productive circuit breaker factory for live tank air insulated breakers consumes approximately 50 tons of SF6 gas each year. A deadtank circuit breaker factory consumes 10 times that amount.

A single live tank air insulated circuit breaker contains somewhere from e few kilos up to a few tens of kilos. While a Deadtank breaker as stated previously consists of tens times as  much.

And as you may all be aware, a GIS substation can contain several tons of Sulphur Hexaflouride.

Despite the international science community's efforts over decades to find a more enviromental friendly version they have been unsuccessful. Globally we manufacture 7500  tons each year and approximately 25% of those are used in new electrical apparatus. The rest is basically used to compensate leakage in old electrical apparatus. The total global leakrate is 5000 to 6000 tons/year.

Except the costs involved for any given comapany to fill and refill the switchgear, the costs for analysing and locating leaks must also be taken into consideration. Therefore the need for reliable and smart equipment is relevant not only to cut cost butalso to save our environment. The SF6-Analyser and IR-Leak unit helps you achive this.

"Testing your breakers"