# Limitations of electrical enclosures



## gnuuser (Jan 13, 2013)

Zog said:


> Came across an excellent article discussing the limitations of metal clad enclosures ability to contain arc blasts. The doors open/doors closed debate has always been a hot topic when it comes to arc flash requirements and this is the best summary I have found (So far, IEEE 1584 is working on this in more detail right now).
> 
> http://www.asse.org/education/seminarfest13/docs/PSJ%20Articles/Sem%2022/Arc%20blast%20hazards_Kolak_0609.pdf



thank you maybe this article will convince our toad of an engineer to test our equipment more often


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## Legion (Oct 19, 2010)

So I wonder how well, plywood clad switch gear would fair... :whistling2:


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

Legion said:


> So I wonder how well, plywood clad switch gear would fair... :whistling2:


The article used a 1000 kVA transformer as an example, and under the conditions set in the formula, they calculated that if it produced an arc blast for a duration of 2 seconds, it would release enough energy to melt 37.4 cubic inches of aluminum 

I doubt the plywood would fare well :laughing:


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## Legion (Oct 19, 2010)

erics37 said:


> The article used a 1000 kVA transformer as an example, and under the conditions set in the formula, they calculated that if it produced an arc blast for a duration of 2 seconds, it would release enough energy to melt 37.4 cubic inches of aluminum
> 
> I doubt the plywood would fare well :laughing:


It doesn't :laughing: but some utilities still use it in antiquated substations which are still operational.


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