Product Design Spotlight – Arrestors: Surge Ratings

As one of NexTek’s primary product lines, our range of Coaxial Surge Protectors is designed to cover a wide range of potential application requirements with high-performance, military-grade designs that are built using top-notch quality control systems. This post will focus on Surge Ratings and how they relate to coaxial arrestors.

Why are Surge Ratings Important?: The primary purpose of any surge arrestor is to protect against unwanted damage from Lightning or other sources of transient energy (like Static [ESD], HIRF, or EMP.) The Transient Ratings of a given arrestor allow direct comparisons between alternative options, and also give the ability to match up a solution’s ratings with calculated risk and energy levels.

How do NexTek Solutions Differ?: Over NexTek’s nearly 30 Years of experience in designing surge protectors, there have been countless opportunities to learn, test, modify, and re-test various Arrestor technologies and designs. When full-scale Lightning Surge testing is combined with continuous research and development over this length of time, our design methods and the overall knowledge base from which we draw have been continuously refined and expanded.  From direct strike capable solutions that can handle >200,000 Amps, to fast-responding EMP protection devices which can respond to a transient pulse within nanoseconds…We have experience with them all!

Example of Nextek Methods: NexTek does comparison testing of Gas Discharge Tubes from different suppliers, by testing multiple tubes to their limit and beyond. As a key component used inside a wide array of our designs, relative GDT performance is extremely important to the overall performance of any arrestor it is used in. By doing full-scale Transient Testing to destruction NexTek can determine which suppliers are highest-performing and which are truest to their ratings…All of this adds up to mean that every NexTek arrestor that uses a GDT inside is using the best available protective element…and therefore providing top-tier Transient Performance balanced with excellent RF Performance!

Summary: No matter the threat type and level (Lightning, ESD, high-speed EMP,) NexTek has the expertise to select the ideal standard product, modify an existing product, or develop an entirely new custom solution according to each specific set of needs!

Learn More:

Coaxial Surge Arrestors (link)

Articles:

Coaxial Surge Protection of High Frequency Lines (.PDF)

Selecting Coaxial Surge Protectors (.PDF)