Multi meter expert

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jps@ss

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I am searching for an engineer with expertise and experience with multi meters to assist me in litigation involving an arc blast explosion. I would appreciate any referrals. This message has been posted with the approval of Mike Holt.

edited to remome personal contact information. please use the PM function for this purpose.

[ July 18, 2005, 12:52 PM: Message edited by: don_resqcapt19 ]
 
Re: Multi meter expert

We had an arc blast explosion where I work with a multi-meter. The journeyman was putting his multimeter on to a something thousand amp GFI, at the same time there was an explosion. He was hurt pretty bad and lost alot of time off of work. The wierd thing is after the explosion we had a independent testing agency come in and test everything and found nothing wrong. I am curious on what your case is?
 
Re: Multi meter expert

I talked with Mike a few minutes ago. The purpose of this thread is to help the original poster to locate an expert in this field. The details of the issue will not be discussed in this thread.

don

[ July 18, 2005, 12:58 PM: Message edited by: don_resqcapt19 ]
 
Re: Multi meter expert

Are looking for a person that is an expert in the internals of a particular meter or functionality.
If it is functionality, then look for a company that performs commissioning or testing of equipment using a meter. There are ga-zillions.
 
Re: Multi meter expert

jps@ss

I spoke recently with a Cutler Hammer salesman. He discussed their experience with the arc flash hazard phenomenon. From his discussion, they have some good experience in evaluating that.

You may want to locate a Cutler Hammer rep and ask if they can help.

PS - I am in no way associated with Cutler Hammer. I have had good experience with some of the old line Westinghouse guys who are now a part of the Cutler Hammer organization.

Good luck.
 
Re: Multi meter expert

Well I hope you found your expert. I am in no way an expert, but I think I might like to speculate (on this forum only, please don't subpoena me :D ) what might cause an arc flash while using a multimeter.

The most likely thing I can think of is if someone had the leads in the position to measure current. (I know there is an internal fuse, but what if someone bypassed that? And who knows what the AIC rating of a multimeter fuse is?) That would probably place something like 0.1 ohm across the line (maybe 480 volts?) That gives a possible current of 4800 amps throught the meter.

There would be arcs at the lead points, and maybe where the probes plug into the meter. But I think the worst thing would be the possible 2MW of power across that small internal resistor. I wouldn't want to hold that in my hand.

I notice on fluke's website they aren't advertising any case studies on multimeter accidents. Too bad, we could probably all learn a lot from them.

Steve
 
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