The Secret Device Hidden Inside This Industrial Plug
The phase rotation plug is a clever device that we didn't know existed until Scame sent us this one through. It allows you quickly swap the two phases over to change the direction of a three-phase motor. Ideal for equipment that is moved between different sites.
Three-phase induction motors will run in the wrong direction if the wiring isn't connected in the correct order.
The Scame Optima Phase rotation plugs are available in IP67 and IP44 versions with current ratings of 16A and 32A with 3p+N and 3P versions.
Appliance inlets with phase rotation options are also available.
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Scame optima range
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TIME STAMPS ⏱
00:00 Phase reverse plug
00:12 Swap 2 phases
00:40 Set up
01:13 Changing from delta to star
02:02 On-site plant and equipment
02:30 Quickly swap phases
03:27 What's in the range
03:53 Marked phase reverse
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Several manufacturers do such devices. We call them "Phasenwender" in German. They are a useful piece of equipment indeed.
Phasenwender - thanks 🙏
that is an awesome sounding name!
And they are an old invention, I recall them back from the early eighties.
@@efixx Yeah - Phasen... (Plural of phase/line) ...wender (changer). New writing Fasenwender too. We goes literally mostly the best name since Mr. Siemens and Mr. Halske invented AC machines and DC/AC changer!
Many years ago when I was in the RAF working on the Victor K2 Tankers, we had to replace the Hose Drum Unit which was powered by 200V 3-phase power. After the leckies had connected it up and we tried to test it, the pump made an awful noise and didn't work. I said to one of the leckies it sounds like its going the wrong way. "Nah, not possible" he said adding "The terminals are different sizes so can't be cross connected". Anyway, after a lot of head scratching and phone calls by them it turned out the HDU came from a test rig where the terminal sizes were different and lo and behold the phases were swapped. 2 cables removed, new crimps fitted, reconnected and bingo! As a rigger at the time I had to smile😊
These have been around for years. Never understood why they are not more widely adopted
In Germany and Thailand they are mostly installed at machines with one-way e.g. saw, compressor, aso. since many years. But we use three-phase since over 100 years. In the old days as I was young I use a short changing cable with plug and socket with me - many older machines was installed at one point only.
They have been arround for decades...
Because they suck. The connections to the two reversible pins have a nasty habit of failing over time without it being obvious from the outside. Many an old farmer´s circular saw or large pump burned up its windings due to being run on only two phases for extended periods of time. They are the reason why the cooling units on containers and trailers need to have a special module that prevents them from being powered up with a missing phase or the wrong phase sequence.
These seem like treating the symptom rather than the problem. And worse one of these could easilly introduce a phase screwup into the system rather than fixing one.
Growing up in the trade having to deal with the Mersey switch I always check phase rotation first, all the time.
😅 100%
I remember that our wood saw didn't work as it should after my late grandma's house got renovated so me and my parents could move in. Turns out that someone mixed up two of the conductors, there were two black one's, that caused the saw to sin backwards, which was actually dangerous for the style of saw we use. So they came out again to fix the mix up. Ended up getting more issues later on because of some apprentice didn't do their job correctly, and caused a outlet to malfunction amongst other things.
These have been around since the '90's. I worked for RS back then and seem to remember they were made by Mennekes.
Yes Mennekes produce this since so a long time. But the first plugs (equal what manufacturer) was very expensive - so some worker use a small cable changer with plug and socket for the both black cables. Specially at one hard install place (only here and never change place) the most people change inside plug or inside machine. I self identifies them and marked one with something so that I install long cables correct 1:1.
In former Yugoslavia, almost every home has at least 1 domestic 3 phase 11kw plug for storage heaters or stoves. Growing up on a farm, we had 3 phase saw mill and corn elevator. As old cables came with 2 black and 1 brown wire (new ones have brown, black and gray), phase order was often just guess work, we had short extension cord with 2 phases crossed over. I thing that it is far safer to have small extension, than possibility to damage wires by crossing them over.
The two blacks are distinguishable: The black one between N and PE is L1, brown is L2 and the black one next to the brown wire is L3.
Yep same here, we just have a tiny short extension cord that has the phases swapped over. So if you want it to go the other way you just plug it trough that.
Good to know. I am an engineer on quite big yachts and specially on old boats there is not an automatic control switch box reversing the phases on board. Now I know what can I use instead of opening the plug ashore every time we change berth or port. All the 400 volts pumps on board will thanks SCAME!
I absolutely LOVE pin and sleeve connectors!
It's a slug or plocket! Nice piece of kit. Thank you.
Wow that’s a brilliant idea. Should save a lot of onsite problems.❤👍
Thanks 👍🏻
We in the entertainment industry use them for our electric chain hoists for rigging sound and lighting equipment. When the down button causes the hoist to go up. Depending on the venue.
Thanks for the great comment 👍🏻
That's so simple it's brilliant.
Yep 👍🏻
WOW now that was a simple solution why didn’t I think of it 👍🏻
Used these for a number of years on chain hoists. PCE 7025-6 Phasenwender 🙂 Easier than having to carry around an adapter made up to flip phases.
Does it prevent you from rotatiing the pins in the same direction everytime? If not, at some point the incoming wires are going to get very twisted and ripped out of the termainals.
Yes, they are limited to 180 degree rotation
No. It is flipping 180° at left or 180° back to right. I use a CEE 16A plug since around over 20 years at my wood saw. Some friends how rent them not have correct three-phase installation (should be "right" now, older (pre-WW2) standard in FRG was "left").
I remember ordering these for ferry with lots of refrigerator lorry cargo. Was game changer
About 20 years ago, my boss told that we can't use those everywhere, because they are too expensive. I might have yelled at him a bit, when I found out that regular 16 amp one cost 5€ and phase changer was 6€. I haven't used regular plug on any rotating machine since.
Fantastic!!!
Never seen one before neat idea
I think I saw a connectorplug like that in the 1990s for the first time.
Great. Then I can connect this plug to my 3-phase heater and use it to cool in summer ! These plugs are often used in the construction industry. In the meantime, no one knows whether the socket or the extension cord is wired incorrectly. Or was the socket wrong and someone adjusted the extension but the next time the socket is correct again.
Brilliant
Clever!
Thanks 👍🏻
I saw these in the RS catalogue decades ago.
I have seen it before the CEE connectors even were a thing. So for me it wasn't really a secret, but it's a nice and useful feature nonetheless.
Usefull on Mobile kit !
Relocated some equipment to a factory in aintree a few years ago and it all ran in reverse when connected the same phases as it had been in its original location. Factory electrician said that always happens there as their phase rotation is reversed for some reason. This was a big factory, reverse phase rotation is more common than you may think. A comment further down mentions pre 1940’s was reverse standard but dont know if this is correct
Yes. In pre-world war two times the right way was left rotating in "German Reich" (Siemens and Halske) and "United Kingdom" use copy of Siemens too. Exactly around the world who installed Siemens stuff use AC left rotating machines. Afterwards as we use "right drive on the right side" on the continent the machine rotating change to "right" too. It was a DIN then after Siemens and Halske was a international German company how sell world wide same before. So some remote places change the rotation too. UK forgotten "three phase use" to save copper (BTW: Save expensive things is a "thing" in every war. Do you can see it that the brit's mostly loose BIG LETTER too! Too many wars in the history!) and install 'rings' since the old DC times. Now they invented it after they learn that 16 kVA use less copper if you use three phase for typical wood saw and electric cars. BTW: The first AC/DC plug and socket for the car industry are invented from firm Mennekes. It is useable for one phase AC, two phase AC, three phase AC and DC. If you use solar or wind (and battery) do you can put the power over DC directly into your electric car without change DCtoAC and ACtoDC.
We use Phase Flip kit all the time in the event industry, old camlok was easy, just swap 2!!! But Nowdays we either have phase Rev switching on Hoist controllers or the "Phase Twiddle" plugs as shown... Something to bear in mind, IF the phase sequence is wrong, SOMEONE has screw up (and signed off on an incorrect supply!!!!) so the supply is shite and i) not fit for purpose + ii) obviously not likely to be vaguely safe, so just take a minute to make sure ( IE Meter PSC/PFC on every phase) the supply is actually not gonna hurt you.... Generally with electrics, shoddy is bad, quick fixes for shoddy are the start of a LOT of paperwork!!!!!!!!
We have one of those because whenever we need to saw firewood it seems the phases are the wrong way no matter if its the same cable as last year...
Hmmm... could they not just put a rotary switch on the mixer - turn one way for forward, one for reverse?
Note that this 'plastic' type of connector is NOT certified for Continuous 32 Amps, the label shown appears to be marked with 8hr i.e only 8 hours duty cycle - I learnt the hard way as I had to buy a replacement for a melted plug.
That is not correct. The "hour marking" on cee style connectors referes to the orientation of the pin circle in reference to the plastik nub on the housing. It designates the voltage. The standard what this plug is, is 6h. That designates 230V for 3pin and 400V for 4 and 5pin connectors. 4h for example designates 110V. 1h is reserved for special usage cases, mainly generator feeds.
In my experience, if a piece of electrical equipment can be rated for 8 hours duty cycle, it is considered continuous. If it does not heat up or melt in 8 hours of duty, rest assured it will not for any period beyond, provided the load conditions haven't changed as much as to cause heat build-up.
Ceenorm (bals) in Telford have sold these for years
When the plugs are almost bigger than the motor...
The kind of kit you wish you had invented every time you swapped the conductors 🤦🏻
thes exist for a long time in germany
They've been out at least 10 years.....I think a different manufacturer though
These have been around for years
Where is Rick, the big bearded presenter?
He is in 2 videos coming up very soon 💕👍🏻
@@efixx Wonderful, cannot wait!
I have seen them first in the early 90th (Europe continent) They are great for construction sites where correct installation of temporary power outlets is more a wish than a standard, but the cables inside the plugs were stressed by regular changes and will break over time.
If the phases of the socket have been incorrectly wired how were they tested when installed? Phase rotation testers are £50 upwards, no excuse for not testing it just shows bad workmanship!
Sounds really good until the company doesn't want to pay a electrician to come out so he'll get a member of the work force out unskilled watch your utube video and mess with something he's not nothing about sounds really good.
Wow UK electrics are so behind
🤦🏻♂️
В щитке на автомате открутил снизу два винта и перекинул фазы. Пару минут делов. Не нужная эта штука.
I believe Mennekes came out with this 15 odd years ago. We found it incredibly annoying. I work with refrigerated vehicles which plug in overnight to cool. The vehicle suppliers would fit these plugs to the supplied flex hookup leads and inlets. If for some reason a truck didn’t start to cool, people would try to switch the rotation. It was NEVER the fault, but some “over the phone engineer” obviously once suggested trying it, and since then, any fault, the twits try this before contacting engineers, even though NOTHING could have changed. A pointless device IMO.
I did not know that you can talk almost 5 minutes about a simple phase rotation plug. I like people comming to the point, so from me a dislike. Try to do better next time.
Here’s the 18 second version just for you Alexander kzhead.infoNMATyTwT8SM?feature=share
Looked into buying these oversized connectors years ago. Nobody stocked the way over priced plugs, cord connectors ,& receptacles. While on a roll most American electricians hate the piss poor IEC motors. Fragile 6 screws break too often, when water gets into pecker head studs short out so it's best to cut wires off throw away POS stud base in trash. IEC motors do not last as long as real deal rugged made in USA NEMA frame motors.