The steady rise in the number of electric vehicles (EVs) on the road ā battery-electric vehicles took more than a 20% share of the new car market for the first time in August 2023 according to ACEA, the European Automobile Manufacturersā Association ā is lifting demand for residential and kerbside EV charging points.
This means that there is a substantial and growing market for residual current monitors (RCMs) ā devices to detect ac and dc ground fault currents in electrical vehicle (EV) charging installations.
TheĀ RCM product lineĀ offers various models to support IEC 62752 and IEC 62955 safety standards for EV charging applications. These products may be used to detect ac, dc, or both type of faults, in single-phase or multi-phase installations.
Now Future Electronics customers can benefit from an even wider choice, after Littelfuse acquired County Galway, Ireland-based Western Automation: Future Electronics is a franchised distributor of Littelfuse, and now supplies and supports Western Automation shock protection products as well.
Customers can order supplies of popular Western Automation RCMs from stock. These include two devices that detect 30 mA ac and 6 mA dc faults, for use in Mode 2 chargers: the RCM01-02 has a cable aperture of 9 mm, and the RCM14-03 has an aperture of 14Ā mm.
The Western Automation product range also features two devices that detect dc leakage only, for use in Mode 3 chargers: the RCM14-01 has a cable aperture of 14 mm, and the RCM20-01 has an aperture of 20 mm.
The product range meets the high standards of quality applied by Western Automation and is available with useful features such as automatic disconnection of the power supply on detection of a fault.