Arcing in Rigid Conduit - Class I Div 2

don_resqcapt19 said:
That does not answer any of my questions. In the plants I worked at, this type of incident, especially if it happened more that once, would require a full root cause investigation.
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I think they are waiting for the guy with the bone in his nose to come back from further training in the jungle. ;)

They have problems with a twisted pair communications on these same pieces of equipment. Once (just ONCE) they found a worn spot on that portion of the cable. Ever after, they sheath the twisted pair of the multi-conductor cable ($$$) with overlapping 4ft lengths of shrink tubing to protect it when they have a problem. Nobody has seen a worn spot since, and I even dunked a "bad" cable in salt water and megged it. No insulation problem.

Root cause investigation? I'm just a contractor. I've given up trying to get them to listen to me.

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If it has happened multiple times, I would think they would want to know why, but that is just me.

It the area is very hot and if you are using THHN, I would try replacing it with XHHW, but not sure that would work.
 
Seems when I do my own root cause involving faults with this particular customer's department, the answer to the 3rd why is always "because they are idiots." I just don't go down that road anymore. Same bunch with the mis-wired motors in another Topic. They were suspecting a crushed underground conduit when they hadn't even checked the wiring in the peckerhead, nor used a megger.
 
TwoBlocked said:
Seems when I do my own root cause involving faults with this particular customer's department, the answer to the 3rd why is always "because they are idiots." I just don't go down that road anymore. Same bunch with the mis-wired motors in another Topic. They were suspecting a crushed underground conduit when they hadn't even checked the wiring in the peckerhead, nor used a megger.
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In the chemical plant that I spent over half of my working years at as an outside contractor this would have required a full root cause investigation. The participants would be their safety, engineering and maintenance departments, myself as the outside contractor and very likely electrical subject matter experts from their other US plants. Typically 2 to 3 days of meetings to resolve.
Edit: there would also be a person running the meeting that had some type of certification in doing this type of investigation.
 
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Agreed with Don. This is a potentially catastrophic situation. I have been involved with the remediation and remodel of multiple buildings that have had massive explosions caused by poor classification standards and procedures. If the owner isn't taking it seriously, letting them know that people can and will die from this type of issue typically gives them a kick in the rear; they need to take this seriously.
 
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