The industrial processing equipment operates with high starting torque due to inertial load. Typically, these applications use wound rotor induction motors. To ensure a high starting torque for a limited input current, these motors are started with a rheostat connected with the rotor winding. The paper presents for the first time a new system for short-circuiting the rotor windings and brush lifting (BLD) developed at ICMET Craiova. The paper also addresses the key design challenges and the reliability requirements which these systems must meet.