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In today's society, everyone must attempt to be aware of what they are doing and how it may affect the people around them ethically and socially, and they must be prepared to accept the consequences. Electrical dangers such as shock, electrocution, arc flash, and arc blast will always be present on the job, but proper training and safety strategies can minimize the likelihood of injuries and fatalities.
We help facilities create safer working environments for those people who service electrical systems by providing with on-line tools for short circuit and arc flash hazard analysis. The short circuit calculator featured on this web-site is offered in effort to satisfy the need for a convenient, comprehensive method of calculating three phase distribution system short circuit fault currents. Free arc flash calculator helps mitigate the risk of dangerous arc flash events in both low and medium voltage applications.
We are committed to enhancing proper electrical design systems and electrical distribution safety research.
According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), an arc flash is "a dangerous condition associated with the release of energy caused by an electric arc." An arc flash is an explosion causing severe burns, injuries and/or death on the severity.
Currently there is a great deal of activity in the electrical industry concerning electrical safety. The focus lies on the two greatest electrical hazards to workers: shock and arc flash. This hazard exists when a worker is working on or near exposed electric conductors or circuit parts that have not been placed in a safe work condition. If an arcing fault occurs the tremendous energy released in a fraction of a second can result in a serious injury or death. Based on previous statistics, "It's expected that the explosive energy released during arc faults will send more than 2,000 workers to burn centers this year." Most of these people will not have been properly warned of the magnitude of the hazard if they are not warned at all. Although injuries from an arc blast are not as frequent as other injuries, their severity makes the cost to human life and to the industry as a whole much, much greater. The monetary cost alone can easily exceed 1 million dollars, and includes not only medical expenses, but the costs of equipment replacement, downtime and insurance.
There is now a great challenge in getting the message to the populace of the electrical industry so that safer system designs and safer work procedures and behaviors result. While the potential for an arc flash has existed for as long as plants have been powered by electricity, two factors have pushed arc flash prevention to the forefront. The first is a greater understanding of arc flash hazards and the risks they pose to personnel. Research into arc flash and arc blasts, including testing conducted by high power labs, has begun to quantify the powerful forces they unleash. The second factor is increased vigilance on the part of OHSA and CEC. OSHA is using the requirements of NFPA 70E, the industry's consensus standard for electrical safety, to judge whether the employer "acted reasonably" in protecting its workers from arc flash hazards. In many cases, this has resulted in employers facing substantial fines after arc flash events. Employers have always had a moral obligation to their workers to minimize the chance of catastrophic arc flashes. But never before have their financial obligations to their stockholders and their legal obligations to OSHA been as great as they are today.
To this date workers continue to sustain life altering injuries or death. NFPA 70E: "Standard for Electrical Safety Requirements for Employee Workers," is the foremost consensus standard on electrical safety. This standard has been adopted by Canada since there was no recent provision listed in the Canadian Electrical Codebook. The CEC will be published again in 2006 this volume will consist of an addendum, which amends the current rule 2-306:
2-306 Shock and Flash Protection.
Sub-rule 1) Electrical equipment such as Switchboards, panel boards, industrial control panels, meter shock enclosures and motor control centers that are installed in other than dwelling units and are likely to require examination, adjustment, servicing or maintenance, while emerged shall be field marked to warn persons of potential electric shock and arc flash hazards.
2) The marking referred to Sub-rule (1) shall be located so as to be clearly visible to persons before examination, adjustment, servicing, or maintenance of the equipment.
For anytime when work must be done on or near energized electrical equipment a flash hazard must be completed.
1) The incident energy exposure to select the level of PPE needed to complete the task.
2) The flash protection boundary to know the approach point to the equipment where PPE will be required.
System's available 3 phase bolted fault current is required to complete the arc flash analysis about the system. ArcAd's short circuit online calculator features second to none input data analysis and hard coded error propagation rules ensuring that the resulting fault current values are not more precise than justified by the precision of input data.
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