Experiences on high current controlled rectifiers in copper SX-EW plants

In this paper several experiences on high current controlled transformer-rectifiers used in copper plants are presented. In addition to the normal operation, the concept of the rectifier as an independent controlled current source was applied to increase the total DC current of a copper plant by connecting additional rectifiers in parallel. In the same scenario, but concerning emergency situations, right after a failure, 4 cases of different special connections are described, which were implemented in the field for a rapid solution. This paper intends to be helpful for field engineers who work on high current rectifiers.