ABB PFTA102 Control Unit 2-Channel – Wall Cubicle Controller for SACE Tmax XT / Emax 2 Breakers, MNS System

Description

Technical Specifications

Main Features and Advantages

Two-breaker consolidation in a wall-mount footprint.​ The core value of ABB PFTA102​ is density: instead of allocating 600 mm of MCC width (or two separate wall boxes) for two scattered breakers, the PFTA102 puts both on a single compact cubicle—roughly the footprint of a small distribution board. For pump-house skids where a CW pump and a CWP jockey each have a Tmax XT, or compressor-local panels with a main Emax 2 + a feeder Tmax XT, ABB PFTA102​ collapses the control infrastructure. The internal DIN rail hosts the Ekip COM for each channel (or a dual-port COM serving both), and the terminal bank lands the breaker’s UCS (undervoltage release), SH (shunt-trip), MCH (motor-charged spring mechanism), and AUX (4× NO/NC status) wiring. One Modbus RS-485 daisy-chain from the ABB PFTA102​ back to the DCS/PLC covers both breakers—cutting cable and trench cost versus two separate drops.Ekip integration with ABB Ability upstream.​ The ABB PFTA102​ isn’t a dumb terminal box—it’s an Ekip-enabled node. Each channel talks Ekip Link to its breaker’s trip unit (Ekip Hi-Touch / Ekip Touch / Ekip Lite depending on breaker spec), pulling trip logs, energy measurements (kWh, kVAR, PF on Ekip-enabled trip units), maintenance counters (mechanism operation count, contact-wear estimate), and alarm pre-status (pre-arcing, pre-overload). The ABB PFTA102​ aggregates these and pushes them up via Modbus RTU to the plant DCS (Siemens S7-1500, Rockwell CLX, ABB AC 800M) or directly into ABB Ability Editions / Ekip Connect cloud for fleet monitoring. For plants running 50+ scattered SACE breakers (common in water treatment, data-center power, commercial high-rise MEP), the ABB PFTA102​ at each cluster is the “edge node” that makes the fleet visible without a full E-House MCC.Local HMI at the cubicle door.​ Even when the DCS link is down, ABB PFTA102​ gives the electrician a local view: the cubicle front door carries a glazed window behind which an Ekip Touch display (or simplified LED/pushbutton panel on economy BOMs) shows breaker status, last-trip cause, and allows local close/open if the key-switch permits. In a pump-house at 3 AM where the DCS SCADA workstation is 400 m away in the CCR, the ABB PFTA102​ door-view saves a trip. The lockable door also satisfies the “authorized access only” requirement for breaker remote-control enable—many plants mandate that remote-close from DCS be locally enabled via a keyswitch on the cubicle, and ABB PFTA102​ provides that pocket natively.Retrofit-friendly for MCC-avoidance projects.​ A growing use case for ABB PFTA102​ is MCC-decongestion: plants with 1990s MCC lineups (often Allen-Bradley / Siemens / ABB MNS 2.0) are out of width, but need to add 2–3 new breakers for skid-mounted equipment (new compressor, new RO skid, new fire-pump feeder). Running new MCC compartments means MCC extension (expensive, lead-time 12–16 weeks). The ABB PFTA102​ wall-cubicle route is 2–3 week lead and mounts on the MCC room wall or the skid-local column, tying back to the existing DCS via Modbus. System integrators increasingly specify ABB PFTA102​ for “decentralized MCC-lite” designs—keep the central MCC for the high-count motor starters, push the scattered single/dual breakers to PFTA wall boxes.Storeroom SKU simplicity.​ For MRO buyers, ABB PFTA102​ (2ch) and its sibling PFTA101​ (1ch) are the two variants to stock. Most plants standardize on PFTA102 even for single-breaker locations (spare channel for future expansion), collapsing the SKU matrix to one. The enclosure, DIN rail, terminal bank, and door hardware are identical across both—only the Ekip COM channel count differs. This is a quiet MRO win similar to the “all COAT” policy on ABB robotics boards.

Application Field

The ABB PFTA102​ deploys wherever SACE Tmax XT / Emax 2 breakers exist outside a conventional MCC—which is a longer list than many realize, because LV breakers have proliferated into skid-mounted packages, building-services risers, and remote utility rooms that pre-date the current DCS.In water and wastewater treatment, CW pump houses, sludge-recirculation buildings, and RO skid compounds typically have 2–4 breakers each (main incomer Emax 2 + feeder Tmax XTs for pumps, blowers, mixers). A full MCC for a 3-pump house is overkill; instead the EPC specifies ABB PFTA102​ wall cubicles—one per pump house, two breakers per cubicle, Modbus daisy-chain back to the plant DCS (often ABB AC 800M or Siemens PCS 7). The ABB PFTA102​ gives the CCR visibility into pump-feeder trips and energy, and allows remote close of the jockey pump after a brief local-maintenance lockout. In desalination and large WWTP, 20+ ABB PFTA102​ units per plant is common.In building services and data centers, the main LV room may have an MCC, but the backup-generator tie, UPS feeder, and chiller feeders are scattered across riser rooms on each floor. ABB PFTA102​ puts each riser’s 2 breakers (incomer + feeder) in a wall cubicle on the riser-room wall, with Modbus back to the BMS (Building Management System) which is often a Siemens Desigo or ABB AC 500. The space saving vs. a floor-level MCC is decisive in high-rent data-center real estate.In oil & gas and marine, skid-mounted packages (produced-water, injection, glycol, nitrogen) ship from the OEM with their own Tmax XT / Emax 2 breakers mounted on the skid frame; the EPC specifies ABB PFTA102​ bolted to the skid handrail or E-house wall, landing the breaker wiring inside the cubicle and pushing Modbus to the plant DCS (typically Emerson DeltaV or ABB AC 800M). Offshore platforms value the IP54 rating and the compact footprint—every kilogram and square-decimeter on a topside counts.In retrofit / MCC-decongestion​ projects, ABB PFTA102​ is the escape hatch. A 1998-vintage MCC with 30 compartments full, and the plant wants to add a new compressor feeder and a new fire-pump feeder—extending the MCC means new structure, new bus, new seismic cert. Instead, two ABB PFTA102​ cubicles go on the MCC-room wall, the breakers land there, Modbus ties to the DCS, and the MCC stays untouched. For maintenance managers, this avoids a 80k–150k MCC extension for a 6k–9k wall-cubicle solution.Service and spare context: many ABB PFTA102​ units in the field are 10–15 years old (MNS 2.0 / SACE Tmax XT generation). The failure modes are typically: door-window seal degradation (IP54 compromised in washdown areas), DIN-rail terminal screw relaxation (vibration from nearby VFDs), or Ekip COM module EOL (the COM itself is a plug-in—spared separately). When a ABB PFTA102​ goes dark, the DCS loses those two breakers from SCADA—trip alarms stop flowing, remote close is unavailable, energy data gaps. Smart MRO holds 1 cold-spare ABB PFTA102​ per 12–15 deployed units in scattered service, plus a matched Ekip COM spare (since the COM is the actual communications engine—the PFTA102 enclosure is just the housing + terminals).