# Breaker Explosion Case Settles for $13.9 Mil.



## wildleg (Apr 12, 2009)

what a horrible fate, I feel for that guy. I expected to read a work comp case, but he actually sued the owners for not maintaining their equipment. I'm surprised he won. Imagine how many companies are guilty of that (I'd guess 80% ?) that's a great article. thanks for the post


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## Michigan Master (Feb 25, 2013)

Terrible way to enter retirement... 

The typical OSHA fines for things such as failing to provide training and proper PPE are usually trivial when compared to loss suffered by the worker and their family members. However, frequently employees or family members then bring civil suit against the employer using OSHA court findings to pursue multi-million dollar settlements for death, pain and suffering.

I'm also sure you're right about the number of companies out there guilty of improper maintenance.


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## Meadow (Jan 14, 2011)

I cant wait for Zog or Big John to post. They will know exactly what happened.


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## 51360 (Jun 9, 2014)

Michigan Master said:


> Terrible way to enter retirement...
> 
> The typical OSHA fines for things such as failing to provide training and proper PPE are usually trivial when compared to loss suffered by the worker and their family members. However, frequently employees or family members then bring civil suit against the employer using OSHA court findings to pursue multi-million dollar settlements for death, pain and suffering.
> 
> I'm also sure you're right about the *number of companies out there guilty of improper maintenance*.



Sad story. 

Even though required by code to do regular maintenance on electrical equipment, far too often the dollar dictates safety. 

Some companies firmly believe that the " fix it when it's broke " method, as opposed to preventative maintenance, is cheaper. SAD! 

Borgi


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## Zog (Apr 15, 2009)

Proper maintenance is going to be the hot topic the next few years thanks to the changes made this year to the NFPA 70E. 

I think 80% is a low estimate :whistling2:


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## gnuuser (Jan 13, 2013)

Borgi said:


> Sad story.
> 
> Even though required by code to do regular maintenance on electrical equipment, far too often the dollar dictates safety.
> 
> ...



ain't that the truth and most of it comes from percentage greedy management who dont give a rats @$$ about worker safety


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## RIVETER (Sep 26, 2009)

The company must not have had a very good team of lawyers. First off the plaintiff would have had to prove that any lack of maintenance HAD to have caused the blowup. Those things blow up due to faults in the field circuitry, as well..


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## Big John (May 23, 2010)

I am very comfortable saying that no properly designed, properly maintained equipment would spontaneously explode.

That's actually one of the conditions within NFPA 70E: Equipment can be assumed to have no significant flash hazard if it installed as designed, operated properly, and maintained adequately.


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## RIVETER (Sep 26, 2009)

Big John said:


> I am very comfortable saying that no properly designed, properly maintained equipment would spontaneously explode.
> 
> That's actually one of the conditions within NFPA 70E: Equipment can be assumed to have no significant flash hazard if it installed as designed, operated properly, and maintained adequately.


That is absolutely true. I am just saying that other factors, such as what you said...including "properly" operated can come into place. I know of a situation where a maintenance person reset a device, (oil filled) breaker and did so several times in succession. He is not here anymore. :thumbsup:


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## Zog (Apr 15, 2009)

Big John said:


> I am very comfortable saying that no properly designed, properly maintained equipment would spontaneously explode.
> 
> That's actually one of the conditions within NFPA 70E: Equipment can be assumed to have no significant flash hazard if it installed as designed, operated properly, and maintained adequately.


The problem is 99% of the people responsible for this have no idea what "properly maintained" means while at the same time thinking (Wrongly) that they do know what it means. :blink:


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## 99cents (Aug 20, 2012)

Explain to me how you would maintain a breaker like this. I'm just curious because, seriously, I don't know.


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## daveEM (Nov 18, 2012)

America is a wonderful place to make a buck, well 13.9 million of them.


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## Big John (May 23, 2010)

99cents said:


> Explain to me how you would maintain a breaker like this...


 Lubricate the mechanism and make sure it operates mechanically as designed and that all critical mechanical measurements are within manufacturer's tolerances.

Ensure that it operates electrically as designed and that all portions of the electrical circuits exhibit proper conductor and insulation resistance.

Do an overall physical inspection and cleaning to ensue there are no physical defects.

Burnish all electrical contacts, perform contact resistance and insulation resistance tests, and if there are vacuum interrupters, test those.


daveEM said:


> America is a wonderful place to make a buck, well 13.9 million of them.


If that article is accurate, the victim was very seriously disabled through absolutely no fault of his own by a company that readily admitted profits took priority over worker safety. 

I wouldn't trade places with him for 13.9 million dollars.


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## Michigan Master (Feb 25, 2013)

Preventative maintenance for overcurrent protective devices is an important yet frequently overlooked factor in electrical system reliability and personal safety. There are several sources in addition to the manufacturer’s recommendations that provide maintenance requirements such as the NFPA-70B and IEEE Standard 902. Deterioration occurs naturally over the lifecycle of electrical equipment and can be accelerated by factors such as the environment, severe duty cycles or overload conditions. 

Part of the data used to calculate the arc flash hazard is the clearing time of the overcurrent protective device; a breaker that takes several additional cycles to operate due to lack of maintenance will significantly increase the incident energy released during a fault and could injure the worker who may now be under dressed.


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## Big John (May 23, 2010)

Michigan Master said:


> ...A breaker that takes several additional cycles to operate due to lack of maintenance will significantly increase the incident energy released during a fault and could injure the worker who may now be under dressed.


 And sometimes that is grossly optimistic: I've seen more than one breaker that either failed to trip at all or else you gave it a trip command and literally stood back and waited for it to operate.

I can only imagine what would happen to a poor guy who thinks he's in a reasonably safe circumstance because there's instantaneous protection on the breaker, only to discover that the actual clearing time is well into the "Long Time" band.


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## Zog (Apr 15, 2009)

Michigan Master said:


> Part of the data used to calculate the arc flash hazard is the clearing time of the overcurrent protective device; a breaker that takes several additional cycles to operate due to lack of maintenance will significantly increase the incident energy released during a fault and could injure the worker who may now be under dressed.


Measuring that opening time can be tricky since traditional methods require the breaker to be opened and racked out to perform trip testing, when you do that you break loose dried lubricants and don't get real life opening times, the only way to get a true measurement as it would be in a fault situation is to record opening time as the breaker sits in the cell, this is called "first trip" testing. 

Traditionally first trip measurement has required complicated and expensive equipment but there are some new test methods on the market now that make this easier and economical. ANSI is already looking at adding first trip testing to it's maintenance procedures.


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## Zog (Apr 15, 2009)

Big John said:


> Lubricate the mechanism and make sure it operates mechanically as designed and that all critical mechanical measurements are within manufacturer's tolerances.
> 
> Ensure that it operates electrically as designed and that all portions of the electrical circuits exhibit proper conductor and insulation resistance.
> 
> ...


Well that's a good start but that is just the maintenance testing aspect, every breaker requires an overhaul at some period of time or # of operations which is defined in the specific maintenance manual for that breaker. 5000 operations or 10 years (Whichever comes first) is common.

A common misconception is the lubrication, you can't just "refresh" lubricants in an operating mech, you need to fully disassemble it, remove all the old grease and re-lube per the OEM manual instructions.

ANSI rated power breakers are designed to be maintained for long life spans, they have parts that do wear out (bearing, bushings, springs, etc..) that get replaced during an overhaul.


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## ibew415 (Mar 23, 2014)

Big John said:


> And sometimes that is grossly optimistic: I've seen more than one breaker that either failed to trip at all or else you gave it a trip command and literally stood back and waited for it to operate.
> 
> I can only imagine what would happen to a poor guy who thinks he's in a reasonably safe circumstance because there's instantaneous protection on the breaker, only to discover that the actual clearing time is well into the "Long Time" band.


Our Company was replacing large K-Don circuit breakers for a critical facility...we are still waiting for one breaker to trip...its been 4 months now.

One of the breakers we attempted to trip, eventually tripped weeks later.


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## Bad Electrician (May 20, 2014)

I have seen many sites with circuit breakers and bolted pressure switches that just by looking at them I know there is no way they would open if called upon too.

Lack of lubrication, tons of dust and dirt, moisture intrusion, insulators and insulating material that is dirty, shows signs of moisture, thermal conditions that either dry out lubricate or compromise insulators. This is more the norm than the rule.

Doing a job now where the building engineers/electricians do not want to close a tie breaker so we can remove a transformer from service, because of the pee poor maintenance and no one knows how of if the Tie is operational.

Scary part is this is prevalent in many critical facilities, hospitals, data centers, air ports, then there are the commercial facilities, but hotels seem to be the worse


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## Zog (Apr 15, 2009)

Bad Electrician said:


> I have seen many sites with circuit breakers and bolted pressure switches that just by looking at them I know there is no way they would open if called upon too.
> 
> Lack of lubrication, tons of dust and dirt, moisture intrusion, insulators and insulating material that is dirty, shows signs of moisture, thermal conditions that either dry out lubricate or compromise insulators. This is more the norm than the rule.
> 
> ...


Why don't you show up to the job with a spare tie breaker just in case?

In my experience hospitals are the worst, my wife knows if I am ever on life support she is supposed to go rent a genny and keep it in my room.


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## Zog (Apr 15, 2009)

ibew415 said:


> Our Company was replacing large K-Don circuit breakers for a critical facility...we are still waiting for one breaker to trip...its been 4 months now.
> 
> One of the breakers we attempted to trip, eventually tripped weeks later.


That's the ANDEOL (Or "anderglue" as we call it) lubricants that were used in those, horrible lubricant that every nuclear facility has banned and switched to Mobil 28. ANDEOL also reacts chemically with any petro based lubricant so if anyone ever added grease or a (gasp) spray lube and truns hard as a rock. You need to tear it all the way down to individual parts to remove all that junk and rebuild.


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## acro (May 3, 2011)

Zog said:


> Well that's a good start but that is just the maintenance testing aspect, every breaker requires an overhaul at some period of time or # of operations which is defined in the specific maintenance manual for that breaker. 5000 operations or 10 years (Whichever comes first) is common.
> 
> A common misconception is the lubrication, you can't just "refresh" lubricants in an operating mech, you need to fully disassemble it, remove all the old grease and re-lube per the OEM manual instructions.
> 
> ANSI rated power breakers are designed to be maintained for long life spans, they have parts that do wear out (bearing, bushings, springs, etc..) that get replaced during an overhaul.


I know there are infinite variables, but waht do you see as a normal procedure for most locations? Recondition batches of breakers on site during a long weekend shutdown, or a systematic replacement rotation with breakers reconditioned at an off site facility like yours?


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## ELECTRICK2 (Feb 21, 2015)

Kudos Dog and Big john. Sound s like you know your stuff. When it comes to servicing/tripping/playing with main breakers leave it to the professionals.


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## ELECTRICK2 (Feb 21, 2015)

Meant to say Zog


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## EM1 (Oct 25, 2014)

I don't mean to come in late and spout off on this topic, but I think I will anyway. 

The article is very poorly written and lacking in every important detail that could contribute to this extremely tragic accident. It references a "High Voltage" circuit breaker with no details. High voltage starts at 69,000 volts and up. Generally this is Substation voltage, not usually found in any "plants electrical room." Possibly this was a "Medium Voltage" switchgear room at most(4, 13, or 34kv). If it was ,then the circuit breaker would be an air, oil, or vacuum power circuit breaker with NO INTERNAL TRIP DEVICE. Medium and high voltage CB's are tripped by external devices, ie. relays with an external power supply, AC or DC.

Medium Voltage breaker maintenance is very important, as previously noted in this post. However, unless this article is completely factually incorrect, then a Medium Voltage breaker will never trip without control voltage and an initiating over current device. If the control voltage is not present(blown fuse), or the relay not properly set and routinely tested, the breaker will burn the switch board to the ground before tripping, no matter what the fault current, or breaker maintenance history.

If they were incorrect, and it was a "Low Voltage" switchboard, 1000V and below, it was probably an antiquated molded case, or air circuit breaker with internal overload protection and old dried lube that did not operate as designed, and upstream protection, that also was not properly sized or maintained.

Many knowledgeable, competent electricians that I have worked with over the years have no idea that anything above low voltage breakers have no independent onboard over current protection.


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## Zog (Apr 15, 2009)

acro said:


> I know there are infinite variables, but waht do you see as a normal procedure for most locations? Recondition batches of breakers on site during a long weekend shutdown, or a systematic replacement rotation with breakers reconditioned at an off site facility like yours?


A proper reconditioning takes 20-80 hours depending on the breaker and requires a lot of special equipment so doing a bunch on site is not usually feasible, however I do have special semi truck trailers outfitted to do this on site and we will do that for big outages (4-6 week power plant shutdown type stuff). 

Usually it is done on a rotating basis at a shop, 95% of our refurbishments are done here at our shop.


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## Zog (Apr 15, 2009)

EM1 said:


> I don't mean to come in late and spout off on this topic, but I think I will anyway.
> 
> The article is very poorly written and lacking in every important detail that could contribute to this extremely tragic accident. It references a "High Voltage" circuit breaker with no details. High voltage starts at 69,000 volts and up. Generally this is Substation voltage, not usually found in any "plants electrical room." Possibly this was a "Medium Voltage" switchgear room at most(4, 13, or 34kv). If it was ,then the circuit breaker would be an air, oil, or vacuum power circuit breaker with NO INTERNAL TRIP DEVICE. Medium and high voltage CB's are tripped by external devices, ie. relays with an external power supply, AC or DC.
> 
> ...


Agreed, since most electricians are not familiar with these breakers why would you expect a news article in a business journal to get it right?


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