Seaward has the measure of testing at fuse manufacturer

One of the UK’s leading manufacturers of industrial and domestic fuse-links has specified advanced microhmmeters to improve resistance testing at its factory.

Lawson Fuses Limited is using a pair of DO5000s from Seaward to achieve highly accurate low resistance measurement during the manufacture of low voltage and semi-conductor protection fuse-links at its North East of England factory.

The utilisation of the DO5000s as part of the manufacturing process enables highly accurate quality checking to be completed quickly, ensuring that tens of thousands of fuse-links produced and tested weekly comply with the relevant standards, BS 88-2:2010, IEC 60269-2:2010, BS HD 60269-2:2010, ASTA 20 authorisation and correctly function after leaving the factory gate.

A dedicated unit is also available for laboratory testing purposes.

Designed to handle all testing applications with a single highly flexible meter, the DO5000 measures from 0.1µΩ to 30,000Ω in eight ranges with manual or automatic selection and ±0.03% accuracy.

Automatic temperature compensation with 20°C referencing or other user-defined settings is a particular beneficial feature for Lawson Fuses, increasing true measurement accuracy.

Products manufactured by the company are used in the UK electricity supply industry as well as the household electrical goods, and industrial control equipment and instrumentation panels markets.

The DO5000 was chosen by technical manager Jozef Zugaj because it is a high quality product offering flexible functionality. He said: “Not only is the DO5000 the most cost effective solution for us but also the best, with functionality greater in terms of the scope of testing range and output.

“It’s fulfilled our expectations and has impressed with its performance in an extremely demanding, high quality production environment.”

Higher accuracies over a wider measuring range on the DO5000 microhmmeter are combined with greater functionality than other instrument models and programmable current setting in 1% steps from 10% to 100% with 10A maximum.

Speed settings of 50, 25 or 2.5 measurements per second allow selection of high speed with full accuracy for production line testing usually with an interface, medium mode also for fast production testing but where the DUT needs a bit more time to settle or slow speed for manual operation where display clarity is a priority.

Component sorting is simplified by programmable Hi/Lo limits and built-in algorithms ensure stable readings for measuring inductive circuits such as windings.

The standard unit also has RS232 and data logging function, storing up to 4000 readings with date and time stamp and statistical analysis. Interfaces can be added for remote control and integration into automated test systems.