Cambridge Capacitors News

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On 1st February 2008, Thomas Burton and Angela Swarbrick were appointed Joint Administrators of Cambridge Capacitors Limited. The affairs, business and property of the company are being managed by the Joint Administrators who contract as agents of the company and without personal liability'

CAMBRIDGE CAPACITORS ADVISES THAT THEIR RANGE OF LIGHTING CAPACITORS DO NOT NEED THERMAL FUSES OR OVERPRESSURE DEVICES

Over the past 25 years, Cambridge Capacitors has produced ALUMINIUM metallised polypropylene capacitors for 250V parallel lighting applications. This product has a remarkable record of safety and reliability. In addition, this capacitor has been approved to EN61048 amendment 2 as a class A capacitor.

Cambridge Capacitors took an active role in the evolution of EN61048 amendment 2. It must be emphasised that capacitors that truly meet the latest Class A requirements are no less safe than capacitors that meet Class B requirements. This was a fundamental requirement during work on the specification. The difference between class A and class B tests is simply to recognise different capacitor technologies.

Sadly, we have recently seen examples of unsafe capacitors in the market place that are produced using ZINC alloy metallised film that is known to be far more dangerous than ALUMINIUM metallising in a type A construction. These capacitors have caused safety problems in use.

We are even more disturbed to discover that the same basic capacitors are now claimed to be safe by the addition of a "thermal fuse". Such safety devices are unreliable in lighting capacitors because of their slowness to react due to thermal lag.

NOTE FOR EDITORS

For many years Cambridge Capacitors has enjoyed a reputation for manufacturing safe and reliable capacitors for the lighting industry with over 470 million capacitors in use world-wide. Our philosophy is to build safety into the dielectric system using "safe" low stress aluminium metallised capacitor windings however not all manufacturers follow this principle. The alternative use of zinc based metallised dielectric in lighting applications can result in dramatic failures leading to the potential for catastrophic damage . Cambridge Capacitors does not consider the use of zinc metallisation to be appropriate to the demands of safety and long life in 250Va.c lighting applications.

Press Release 07/02

ENDS