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en secouru transitoire

English translation: short-term maintained supply

16:24 Feb 5, 2019
French to English translations [PRO]
Tech/Engineering - Electronics / Elect Eng / Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS)
French term or phrase: en secouru transitoire
Source phrase: This appears in a list of characteristics to be specified for a UPS: "liste équipements alimentés en secouru transitoire".

If I've understood correctly
- a UPS acts as a back-up to provide electrical power to an item of equipment when its normal power supply fails, and "transitoire" must be referring to protection against "inrush current"/"current surges" ("courant transitoire").

But what would be the correct phrasing here overall?

> A list of the equipment backed-up and protected against inrush currents?
> A list of the equipment backed-up, including surge protection?

I'm sure someone with electrical knowledge can improve on those attempts...

Merci !
Hayley
Hayley Leva
France
Local time: 06:12
English translation:short-term maintained supply
Explanation:
I'm afraid none of your proposals will really do; I don't believe this has anything to do with 'inrush current etc.'; note the syntax 'en secouru transitoire'

'secouru' does indeed mean a standby or backup UPS — though in many institutional contexts, this is referred to as a 'maintained' supply; for example, in hospitals etc; you may see a number of e.g. red power sockets: these are for priority equipment, and if the main supply goes over, only these circuits have power 'maintained' to them.

I'm not entirely clear what they mean here by 'transitoire' — the tiny snippet of source text is not explicit, it remains to be seen if any more details are given elsewhere in your text. In the case of e.g. a hospital, the backup supply will be provided by typically a diesel generator, which is required to start within say 30 sec. Even this short outage may be unacceptable for certain particularly crucial or sensitive equipment, in which case they might have to resort to battery-powered solid-state UPSs, posisbly even through-feed ones, or at least, they will be able to take over within like 1 half-cycle of the mains!
The trouble is, running much power on a s-s UPS of course demands huge battery resources; so their use might be limited to only the very short 'transient' moment before (say) the generator gets going.

I am wondering if that is what is going on here?
Alternatively, it could simply be that they are being used to avoid even tiny mains 'glitches' or 'micro-outages' — the sort of things that are just enough to make your PC crash!
There are other possibilities for 'en transitoire', but it's impossible to be sure without more context.
Selected response from:

Tony M
France
Local time: 06:12
Grading comment
Thanks for this explanation
3 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
5transient maintained supply
GILLES MEUNIER
3 +1short-term maintained supply
Tony M


  

Answers


37 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +1
alimentés en secouru transitoire
short-term maintained supply


Explanation:
I'm afraid none of your proposals will really do; I don't believe this has anything to do with 'inrush current etc.'; note the syntax 'en secouru transitoire'

'secouru' does indeed mean a standby or backup UPS — though in many institutional contexts, this is referred to as a 'maintained' supply; for example, in hospitals etc; you may see a number of e.g. red power sockets: these are for priority equipment, and if the main supply goes over, only these circuits have power 'maintained' to them.

I'm not entirely clear what they mean here by 'transitoire' — the tiny snippet of source text is not explicit, it remains to be seen if any more details are given elsewhere in your text. In the case of e.g. a hospital, the backup supply will be provided by typically a diesel generator, which is required to start within say 30 sec. Even this short outage may be unacceptable for certain particularly crucial or sensitive equipment, in which case they might have to resort to battery-powered solid-state UPSs, posisbly even through-feed ones, or at least, they will be able to take over within like 1 half-cycle of the mains!
The trouble is, running much power on a s-s UPS of course demands huge battery resources; so their use might be limited to only the very short 'transient' moment before (say) the generator gets going.

I am wondering if that is what is going on here?
Alternatively, it could simply be that they are being used to avoid even tiny mains 'glitches' or 'micro-outages' — the sort of things that are just enough to make your PC crash!
There are other possibilities for 'en transitoire', but it's impossible to be sure without more context.


Tony M
France
Local time: 06:12
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 2116
Grading comment
Thanks for this explanation

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Philippe Etienne: I'd also tend to understand "transitoire" as temporary here: battery backup until clean shutdown or manual generator connection or sthg...
16 hrs
  -> Merci, Philippe ! I see it here more as an adjective, rather than a countable noun; it's a bit like 'passager', which can't always be translated slavishly into EN.
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13 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5
transient maintained supply


Explanation:
transitoire = transient (glossaire électrique)

GILLES MEUNIER
France
Local time: 06:12
Native speaker of: French
PRO pts in category: 55
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