Entering a new world of applications
Almost exactly forty years ago, a developer and a buyer turned up at FJ’s door with a plastic bag. They came from a manufacturer that until then had mainly built motors and was now starting to control their speed using inverters.
This opened up a new world of applications with its own requirements: higher temperatures, tight installation spaces and strict specifications for insulation and fire behaviour. Anyone entering such an application for the first time has to understand not only the product, but also the associated standards, materials and interactions.
Knowledge of standards that already existed
FJ was already familiar with many of these requirements. From ballast terminals and special terminals for industrial lighting systems came the knowledge of clearances and creepage distances, permissible torques and conductor cross-sections in accordance with VDE regulations.
Exports to North America brought additional approval requirements, in the USA in particular according to UL, in Canada through the corresponding Canadian approvals. These included strict requirements for the fire behaviour of plastics: how long a material continues to burn after a defined flame application, whether it is self-extinguishing and whether burning particles drip off.
Equally important was the standard-compliant design of clearances and creepage distances, i.e. the distances through the air and along the surface of an insulating material. Their dimensioning depends, among other things, on voltage, pollution degree, material and operating conditions. FJ was able to transfer this knowledge to the new application.
The right material for the inverters was also found step by step. ABS was used first, which proved problematic at the temperatures that occurred. This was followed by blends and finally polycarbonate. FJ was able to accompany this path in an advisory role, because it was already known from other applications what problems can arise with temperature, insulation and fire behaviour.
Pragmatic all the way into production
This experience gave rise to a way of working that combines technical care with practical feasibility. FJ does not look for novelty for its own sake. What matters is that a solution meets the normative and functional requirements, remains economically justifiable and can later be controlled reliably in production.
Experience-based knowledge is not tied to a single industry or a specific product. It travels along and shortens the path to sound decisions when similar technical relationships recur in a new application.
“We solve problems with sensible means. In doing so, we keep an eye on costs and make sure that the solution can be controlled later in production.”
