It is extremely rare to watch a truly innovative product revolutionize an industry. Not some new accessory or incremental improvement of an existing product, but a totally new product based on leading edge technology that precedes a real paradigm shift. Something that forces the industry to reconsider long-standing norms and assumptions regarding capabilities, risks, safety, costs, etc. The development of the Atom Switch and associated product line based on solid-state switching may very well be one of these rare events.
So, what makes the Atom Switch such an innovative breakthrough? The Atom Switch is a circuit breaker that uses semiconductors to interrupt and switch the flow of current instead of the traditional mechanical-based tripping mechanism that other circuit breakers rely on. Both interrupt power during fault conditions and can be manually opened or closed, so what’s the big deal? The big deal is the solid-state switch with integral high-speed current sensing can detect a fault during a sub-cycle and open approximately 16,000 times faster than a mechanical breaker. The result is the elimination of associated low-impedance arc-flash hazards which typically cause the highest destruction. If you don’t believe it, watch the demonstration video at https://youtu.be/CkqdzyQ0350 where Ryan Kennedy, Atom Power CEO and co-founder, initiates a phase-to-phase short of a 100A, 480Vac circuit without even a spark.