Arc Flash & Electrical Safety News

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Preventing Arc Flash Injuries

The introduction to an article published in Occupational Hazards magazine states, "By following a few logical steps to develop an understanding of arc flash hazards, you can help to prevent injury to yourself and those around you."

The article goes on to point out, "At the 11th annual IEEE-IAS Electrical Safety Workshop, statistics presented from a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health study showed that during the period from 1992 through 2001, there were 44,363 electrical-related injuries involving days away from work. The number of nonfatal electrical shock injuries was 27,262, while 17,101 injuries were caused by electric arc flash burns."

The question, "What do we do?" is then raised and answered by a six step process:

Step No. 1 – The Arc Flash Hazard Analysis

Step No. 2 – Gather the Information

Step No. 3 – Perform an Arc Flash Study

Step No. 4 – Choose the Proper PPE

Step No. 5 – Mark Your Equipment (apply arc flash labels.)

Step No. 6 – Train Your Workers

Read the complete article at Occupational Hazards Magazine

Labels: Arc Flash, Work Place Safety

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Tuesday, August 29, 2006

APPA’s Influence on the 2008 National Electric Code

This is an interesting article that discusses how the National Electrical Code has been influenced by APPA, forestalling "at least $250 million in regulatory conformity costs." APPA is a professional organization for educational facilities professionals. In 1999, APPA received voting privileges on the content of the National Electric Code.

This article provides a good overview of the history of the arc flash electrical code (and NFPA 70E), the trade-offs that had to be made, and how the current code was arrived at. It also provides a look into the future and what might be expected when the code is next updated.

One of the major concerns in developing the code has been labeling requirements. For example, the article states:

"Many engineers embraced the incident energy labeling proposal because it held out hope for more funding for engineering. We saw flash hazard regulations as a way to get funding to fix stuff. Sensing the market, the IEEE updated its standard 1584, 'Guide for Performing Arc Flash Hazard Calculations'."

However, as the article explains, incident energy labeling was not included in the current code. The trade-offs between safety and economics become visible in this article.

You can read this article on the APPA web site.

Labels: Arc Flash, NFPA 70E

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Monday, August 28, 2006

Keys to Understanding NFPA Standard 70E

A detailed article about NFPA 70E is provided in EC&M Magazine (May 2005 issue).

It provides an overview of the OSHA regulations and a detailed explanations of terms such as "incident energy" and "fault current". The article is written with the objective of bringing a greater technical understanding of NFPA 70E so as to improve safety, and it accomplishes that goal.

The conclusion of the article makes an excellent recommendation:

"Most contractors acknowledge that the calculations required by 70E are too complex for the everyday work environment. That's why it's recommended that the tables in Section 130 be distributed to each and every field worker and that each worker be outfitted with a minimum Category 2 PPE. Electricians' tools should also be reviewed to make sure they comply with 70E. Just simply knowing 70E guidelines will help reduce the number of arc-flash injuries."

Labels: NFPA 70E, Understanding Arc Flash

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Friday, August 25, 2006

Guidelines For Labeling Welding and Cutting Equipment

The following is a press release from NEMA:

(ROSSLYN, VA) - NEMA has published EW 6-2006, Guidelines for Precautionary Labeling of Arc-Welding and Cutting Products. It is intended for manufacturers and suppliers in the arc welding and cutting industry. The guidelines cover content, format, and placement of text-only, text-and-symbols, symbols-only, and multi-language labels.

"This document addresses the needs of manufacturers to provide appropriate precautionary labels on their products, now including multi-language labels. The methods and examples contained in this edition comply with requirements and address audiences worldwide. As in the past, manufacturers can use EW6 with confidence knowing that the latest methods and requirements for the design of appropriate precautionary labels are addressed," says Jerome Jennings, vice chairman of the Arc-Welding Precautionary Labeling Committee.

EW 6-2006 may be purchased for $61.00 by visiting http://www.nema.org/stds/ew6.cfm; or by contacting Global Engineering Documents at (800) 854-7179 (within the U.S.), (303) 397-7956 (international), (303) 397-2740 (fax).

NEMA is the trade association of choice for the electrical manufacturing industry. Founded in 1926 and headquartered near Washington, D.C., its 430 member companies manufacture products used in the generation, transmission and distribution, control, and end-use of electricity. These products are used in utility, medical imaging, industrial, commercial, institutional, and residential applications. Domestic production of electrical products sold worldwide exceeds $120 billion. In addition to its headquarters in Rosslyn, Virginia, NEMA also has offices in Beijing, Sao Paulo, and Mexico City.

Labels: Work Place Safety

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Thursday, August 24, 2006

NFPA 70E - More Than Labels and PPE

We are a labeling machine company, so of course labeling is important to us. And labeling is a key component of NFPA 70E and arc flash safety. It's important not because we are a labeling machine company, but for safety. Labels and signs communicate information about arc flash hazards, and required protection, at the point of need. But there is more to arc flash safety than labeling and PPE.

An article by Chet Davis in Plant Engineering magazine points out that employees must also understand the reason why the arc flash label is there. The article quotes Gary McGuire, a safety manager for a large pulp and paper mill in the Northwest who says, "'Safety must be operated by principle, not practice.' He stresses the 'why' of safety, not just the dos and don'ts of a task. This knowledge gives people confronted with something out of the ordinary the background to understand the potential dangers, enabling them to make safe choices. Safety is a culture that must be ingrained with principle. This culture starts from management and filters down to the worker where ultimate responsibility rests."

Labels: Arc Flash Labeling, NFPA 70E

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Friday, August 18, 2006

IEEE Video - Arc Flash Hazards in Electrical Equipment

IEEE is offering a video, produced by an ad hoc safety committee whose intention was to learn more about electrical arc flash. They "had three main goals in mind: to develop new leanings or validate existing leanings around electrical flash hazards: to produce three training programs for electricians, engineers and general public around electrical hazards: to assimilate and catalog knowledge around all aspects of electrical hazards."

The video, along with the IEEE paper documenting all data collected during these tests, and a CD-ROM with more than 90 Microsoft PowerPoint slides with information supporting the tests and testing process, is available for purchase from IEEE.

Labels: Arc Flash Training, Understanding Arc Flash

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Friday, August 11, 2006

Molded-Case Circuit Breakers Reduce Arc Flash Hazard Impact

A free arc flash related paper is available from NEMA (the National Electrical Manufacturers Association). The paper is titled "Molded-Case Circuit Breakers Reduce Arc Flash Hazard Impact" Its purpose is to identify the impact on the potential for arc flash of molded-case circuit breakers (MCCBs) and methods of determining it. (Registration is required to download this free paper.)

Download The Free NEMA Paper

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Thursday, August 10, 2006

Arc-Flash Compliance for Industrial Facilities and Beyond

Jim Crockett, Editor-In-Chief of the magazine Consulting-Specifying Engineer, reports from the National Manufacturing Week show that worker safety was a high priority in discussions on both the exhibit floor and in sessions. However, he reports that "adherence to NFPA 70E, part of the National Electric Code, was, of course, a subset of this discussion, but in a disturbing sort of way. 'A big question we keep getting is, Do we have to do this?' said Doug Mleczko with Des Plaines, Ill.-based fuse manufacturer Littelfuse."

The article goes on to describe arc flash hazards and how it is important that consulting engineers be current on arc flash safety. The article quotes Joe Weigel with Square D's Services Group in Nashville, Tenn., "the issue goes well beyond educating plant managers. Consulting engineers, he argued, also need to get up to speed."

"Clients rely on consulting engineers to be experts on the current codes and standards affecting electrical system design," said Weigel. "Most consultants are very knowledgeable in this area, but design practices for minimum arc-flash potential have not yet been defined in the standards."

"Weigel went on to say that, in fact, the practices commonly used today are bad. Engineers have to be aware of the potential legal consequences of their current practices."

Weigel then went on to offer a number of suggestions to consulting engineers for improving arc flash safety.

Read this article online.

Labels: Work Place Safety

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Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Arc Flash Incident On A Submarine

In an IEEE paper Ben Johnson tells the story of an arc flash incident on a submarine. Please note that this link goes to a Word document that includes images. It is about 7.5mb in size. The story is short, well told and interesting. Although the incident happened 40 years ago, the message is relevant to us today.

Labels: Arc Flash Accidents

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