Masterpact ST and STR Type Trip Units: a brief history

https://www.masterpactcenterofexcellence.co.uk/
masterpact-st-str-type-trip-units-brief-history-3/

Wednesday, December 10th, 2014

Merlin Gerin ST Trip Unit
The first Masterpact M air circuit breakers were produced by Merlin Gerin in
1986. They had ST type trip units fitted, with various options from which to
choose dependent upon the role of each ACB, including:

ST008 blank plate units for switch disconnectors

ST108i for basic instantaneous protection
ST208D for standard distribution type functionality
ST318S and ST418S for selective protection
ST608Us for universal protection.

Merlin Gerin ST Trip Unit

The ST trip units were replaced in the early 1990s by the STR. This gave a
more practical range of selectable protection settings and was an upgrade of
the older tripping technology.

The manufacturer, now Merlin Gerin (Schneider Electric Ltd), found at this time
that there was a potentially dangerous quality problem on the older ST for a
large batch of units and launched “Project Spring”. This involved trying to track
down all affected units worldwide, and replacing them free of charge. The
name may have sounded like it was a mechanical problem with a spring of
some type, but it was actually electronic componentry on one of the PCBs.

Due to the refusal of some companies to supply Schneider with customer

details, not all of the affected units were found so there may still be units out
on the networks with this inherent problem.

Worldwide sales of the Merlin Gerin Masterpact M (called the Square D

Masterpact MP in the United States) including the newer range of STR trip
units, increased rapidly. Even so, Schneider Electric failed to completely throw
off the quality issues surrounding their electronic trip units.

The continuing failure of STR units progressively started to increase as a result

of the issues with the STR trip units. To overcome these, Schneider Electric
launched their new Masterpact NW & NT ranges to supercede the Masterpact
M with a completely new type of electronic trip unit (the Micrologic range).

By 2003, when the last Masterpact M units were manufactured, Schneider

Electric had made a conscious effort to try to limit their future exposure and
went on to insist that any replacement STR trip unit was fitted by a Schneider
Engineer – ostensibly to overcome lack of expertise in fitting substitute units.
This view is, however, questionable, as most of the units that failed, were
factory fitted in the original production phase.

As part of the obsolescence program in 2003, Schneider Electric rationalised

their range of available replacement trip units down to the STR58U – which
would also replace the STR18I, STR18M, STR28D and STR38S units – and the
STR68U programmable unit.

Unfortunately, though, the rate at which STR trip units are failing is on the
increase. Schneider has issued a statement saying that the problem is caused
by a faulty batch of thermistors which, due to the growth of dendrites on the
component under certain atmospheric, voltage and current conditions, can
cause the unit to measure a higher temperature than is actually there, thus
causing the unit to trip.
Symptoms of this problem are that the “Red Button” on the face of the STR
unit will be pushed out indicating a trip, but there will be no fault indication.

Whilst replacing a faulty STR unit with a brand new STR58U may temporarily
resolve the spurious tripping issue on a specific breaker, there is no guarantee
how long each trip unit will last before it starts to malfunction because it is a
re-manufactured item using the old design.
Because Schneider tend to insist that all replacements are fitted by Schneider
Technicians or appointed agents, the replacement process can be expensive to
carry out – and gives Schneider access to the end user company.

Over the last few years, the delivery lead time on the STR58U has been
anything up to 16 working weeks in the UK – and then you need to factor in
the Schneider Service team schedule for the work.

Schneider Electric does now offer an alternative solution to this problem. This
is the provision of a retrofit kit for the withdrawable types of Masterpact M, to
replace it with a modified Masterpact NW ACB.

Unfortunately, the standard NW withdrawable ACBs will not fit into the
retrofit chassis, so Customers are limited in their ability to cope with
maintenance / emergency swap-outs. It is also another service that Schneider
Electric insist on providing as a fitted service, so the cost can be quite
prohibitive, especially as this solution is arguably ‘over the top’ because the
actual Masterpact M ACBs are usually still in a completely servicable condition
when they are changed. This means that the Customer pays for changing part
of the equipment that is still good for a number of years service, just to
overcome the nuisance trip unit issue. Thus this service raises the likelihood of
service continuity problems, whilst costing thousands of pounds for a solution
that could have been treated by fitting an alternative protection unit , costing
hundreds.

Amp Safe Pro is a product built specifically to replace all STR units and has
identical tripping curves. It also offers extra features such as self testing and
breaker maintenance alarm.

The Amp Safe Pro continuously monitors the internal tripping circuit and will
alarm if any defect is detected within the breaker or actuator circuits.

In April 2015 the Amp Safe Pro Plus will be launched offering full power
metering and communications capability on top of its standard features. Please
feel free to visit us at The Data Centre Show on the 11th/12th March 2015.