Precipitator controls and control cabinets are the electrical heart of the precipitator.  They control how much power is allowed to flow into the precipitator during various operating conditions.  The collection efficiency of the precipitator is directly proportional to the power.  This makes the controls a very important component of the precipitator.

New microprocessor based controls, like Redkoh’s RK2000 system, are presently considered the state-of-the-art.  Plants that have Analog controls should consider a control upgrade.  Switching from analog controls to RK2000 controls almost always results in improved collection and reduced emissions.  On weighted wire precipitators the incidence of wire breakage is significantly reduced due to the rapid response time to sparking and arcing.  Plants that have microprocessor controls older than 10 years should also consider updating their controls.

Controls can be provided to replace the internals of existing control cabinets where some of the older components such as breakers and contactors and control transformers can be reused to save money, or in brand new control cabinets with all new components to extend the life of the system.  New control cabinets can be stand alone or bussed together in convenient groupings to minimize installation wiring and time.

TR and rapper controls (see rapper controls) can be tied together over a communications link and connected to a remote central computer (see PrecipCommander central control) for remote data acquisition, trending, and control, or a plant DCS/PLC for data collection and reporting.

Upgrading an existing control cabinet to new microprocessor controls typically takes two man-days for the first cabinet and one man-day for each additional cabinet.