Hydraulic leak on MCC

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scott minter

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Location
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Occupation
Associate Engineer
Good morning

My facility had a large hydraulic leak under pressure. We have large and small amounts of hydraulic fluid that has soaked our breakers in our MCC. The oil has made its way down the conductors and out the bottom side of the breakers. Are there any suggestions for clean up? Is this factory rebuild? Replace? Solid cleaning? Third party cleaning? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

  • Breaker sizes range from 125 amp to 800 amp.
  • No starters.
  • Some breakers are thermal mag others are electronic trip.
  • 480 volt.
  • Allen Bradley centerline 2100.

Scott
 
scott minter said:
Good morning

My facility had a large hydraulic leak under pressure. We have large and small amounts of hydraulic fluid that has soaked our breakers in our MCC. The oil has made its way down the conductors and out the bottom side of the breakers. Are there any suggestions for clean up? Is this factory rebuild? Replace? Solid cleaning? Third party cleaning? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

  • Breaker sizes range from 125 amp to 800 amp.
  • No starters.
  • Some breakers are thermal mag others are electronic trip.
  • 480 volt.
  • Allen Bradley centerline 2100.

Scott
Click to expand...
Once upon a time, a couple control panels showed up in our shop to be rebuilt. The insides of the control panels were full of coolant and oil that had accumulated over many years.

We used a pressure washer and simple green to clean the curd out of the cabinets and off the main components like I/O racks.

IPA was used to clean the rest of the components.

When we were done and tested it we found almost everything worked just fine except for a power supply.

Not a recommendation.

IMO, I would try cleaning first, but if you have plenty of money just buy a new MCC.
 
There are companies that have technicians that clean and recondition circuit breakers. You might want to contact one of them and see what they think.
 
I looked at a job where the electrical room was under water for a couple of months at a large water park in Atlanta, someone in maintenance thought it would be a good idea to turn off the sump pumps in the off season. The wave pool filled up with rain water, which leaked into the underground electrical room. 480 volt three phase. I quoted replacing everything, somebody else quoted just drying it out. They decided to go with the much cheaper drying out. Never heard how that job turned out, but I bet the gear didn’t last too long after that! From the burn and smoke marks on the walls, it was at least 6’ deep in water!
 
Based on your profile I'd say the money is there for a complete replacement and likely all will be better off if this has anything to do with mission critical equipment
 
Electricians I knew from USS washed down those oily dirty MCC and panels with carbon tetrachloride and MEK. Seemed to work good at the time, but a few of them died in their 40's from cancer and leukemia
 
Jraef said:
“Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?”
Click to expand...
Well maybe there is a safe way to use those solvents. I think the carbon tetrachloride didn't damage ay insulation materials. Not sure about the MEK.

Those guys were taking baths in the stuff, no respirators, no gloves, nothing. Electric motor shops used a lot of carbon tetrachloride back in the day, not sure what they use now.
 
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