Thread: Any Sparkies on here?

Id hazard a guess at tightening up a bolt on a fairly major bus bar that then got shorted to something that it should have been well insulated from.

Someones going to be paying for a new panel because usually when it happens you wind up with a nice crhome spray deposit all over everything.

He just pumped up a circuit breaker... a big one and closed it on a dead short. High fault current driven by a transformer in close proximity on a short fat set of cables made the fiery bit... Copper melts to plasma in an instant and the conductive plasma carries the arc till the breaker or any upstream protection stops it.

He is "racking out" or "racking in" a HV ciruit breaker

They rack into position and open bus shutters at the same time and the "spouts" connect to the HV bus, something has gone pair shaped there

If he had kept the front panel of the SWBD shut before closing the breaker it may have saved him a few months in hospital. Over here the new rules make you wear a cat.4 arc flash suit.

could he have just pulled off a magicians trick?

watch it carefully,
00:00 theres a bloke and a chick (or a guy who needs a diet or to take all the stuff out of his top pockets),
00:05 she hands over something and walks off,
00:06 he starts doing some very theatrical moving about, theres a puff of smoke and you dont see the second guy any more.
00:17 Theres a bright flash and a heap of smoke and we dont get to see the second guy again.

MAGIC....

Originally Posted by 2stroke

If he had kept the front panel of the SWBD shut before closing the breaker it may have saved him a few months in hospital. Over here the new rules make you wear a cat.4 arc flash suit.

He is not switching, he is racking, usually done with the door open, CB "should" be in an open state

The winding he is doing is not switching, it is either racking into/out off position, or winding the spring which does the switching

It is a pneumatic operated circuit breaker. you pump them up then push a button and it closes, a fairly day to day sort of thing we do. I'd suggest by the arc flash it's on a LV ciruit breaker, 2000 plus amps. We get to see these videos all the time to give us some respect for arc flash.
edit...Maybe they are spring operated, now you mention it, I do know that you pump the lever 6 or so times and shut your eyes and push the green button... mostly without the fire.

Originally Posted by 2stroke

It is a pneumatic operated circuit breaker. you pump them up then push a button and it closes, a fairly day to day sort of thing we do. I'd suggest by the arc flash it's on a LV ciruit breaker, 2000 plus amps. We get to see these videos all the time to give us some respect for arc flash.

Correct, he is not switching

Could be an LV breaker, although 'tis a big flame ball, but if its switched on a dead short...

Interesting scenario, be good to know more

Used to do maintenance on SF6, air blast, oil filled breakers etc