Playing safe
Macmet India in partnership with Duval Messien of France, has come up with the
world's most advanced lightning protection system, SATELIT-3. The Machinist reports
Macmet India, in association
with Duval Messien of
France, recently unveiled
SATELIT-3, the world's most
advanced lightning protection
system. SATELIT-3 is a state of the
art, third-generation, earlystreamer-
emission lightning
protection system that was
specially designed and developed
by Duval Messein for defence
establishments of major western
powers to protect their 'zone zero'
installations. This system is now
protecting various international
airports, nuclear installations, space
centres, ammunition arsenals,
explosive dumps, radar stations,
aircraft warehouses, ports,
refineries, gas plants, IT parks,
telecom towers, hospitals,
museums, heritage sites and
intelligent buildings.
Commenting on the occasion,
PK Madappa, MD, Macmet India,
said, "We are witnessing a
resurgent Bengal, where several
intelligent buildings, IT parks and
large number of projects involving
costly and sophisticated electronic
equipments are coming up. We are
confident that the SATELIT-3 has
come into the market at the right
time and is ideally suited to protect
these valuable assets against
damage caused by direct lightning
strikes. We are also happy that a
multinational such as Duval
Messein has partnered with
Macmet for the distribution and
sale of SATELIT-3 in the Eastern
region." SATELIT-3 is a proactive
intelligent electronic device that is
self-powered and can detect in
advance, changes in the
electrostatic field in the cloud,
including its polarity (+ve or -ve). In
the event of an imminent lightning
strike, it synchronises with the
downward lightning and triggers
off powerful upward streamers to
meet the incoming lightning in
mid-air about 60 m above the tip
and safely channelise the same to
the ground. The early
synchronisation enables to provide
a wide zone of protection many
times larger than that provided by
the commonly used simple rod
system. SATELIT-3 is the only
system of its kind that has an
inbuilt self-check mechanism that
can be monitored by a hand-held
remote control tele-tester from the
ground. Addressing the serious
concern for losses, caused by direct
lighting strikes, Sonjeeb Banerjee,
Director, Duval Messien, explained
that the entire eastern region was
highly prone to thunderstorms and
lightning strikes. It is, therefore,
imperative for buildings, housingsensitive
and expensive electronic
equipment, to adequately protect
themselves against ill effects of
direct lightning strikes. A single
SATELIT-3 unit is capable of
protecting an entire complex of
buildings within a range of 79 m
radius against 98 per cent of
lightning strikes. In India, SATELIT-3
has recently been installed at
DRDO headquarters in Delhi, BEL,
IT Parks, software buildings and so
on at Bangalore, Hyderabad,
Mumbai, Pune and Kolkata. This is
the only system that can ground
both +ve and -ve lightning and has
a built-in self-check mechanism
that continuously monitors its
proper functioning and sends out
its health condition via a radio
signal every 90 seconds. These
signals can be picked up by a
hand-held remote control teletester
from the ground level and
can be interpreted even by a
layman. The SATELIT-3 is a powerful
device that provides a large zone
of protection ranging from a radius
of 79-107 m for different levels of
lightning strikes. Hence, a single
SATELIT-3 unit is capable of
protecting an entire complex
falling within the above range.
The SATELIT-3 lightning
protection system fully complies
with French standard, NF C 17 102
(July 1995), Spanish standard UNE-
21 186, JP and I-20, as well as many
European standards. It has been
acknowledged worldwide and
tested to high-voltage and highintensity
current tests at the level
of 180,000 amps by independent
laboratories.
....CONTD
