Sharp edges in switch gear.

[69gp]

Thought I would pass along a few pictures from a service call to fix a cable and replace a breaker.

3 wire nuts to whoever can identify the problem in the above pic.

After lifting the cable off the angle bracket at the bottom of the switch gear.

just nicked ?

after stripping back the insulation.

 

[Jraef]

So, is that really about sharp edges in switchgear, or is that about not properly routing and bracing conductors so that they do not touch ANY edges in the gear? Because you know what? If the edges of that bracket were not at all sharp, draping the conductors across it without having them strapped or laced like that would result in that situation eventually anyway.

 

[starbolin]

Thanks for the pictures.

 

[69gp]

So, is that really about sharp edges in switchgear, or is that about not properly routing and bracing conductors so that they do not touch ANY edges in the gear? Because you know what? If the edges of that bracket were not at all sharp, draping the conductors across it without having them strapped or laced like that would result in that situation eventually anyway.

I would call it sloppy workmanship. I added a couple more pics of where in the same switch gear the 500s were just laying on top of the C phase of the busing. The buss was actually spliced right under the cable and already had about an 1/8" indentation into the cable.

before shot you can see the cables resting on the buss.

After shot of the cables lifted off of the buss.

 

[Ponchik]

So how did you repair the damaged wire?

Did you replace it all the way back to where it came from?

Did you do a butt splice in the switch gear?

BTW, thanks for sharing the pictures.

 

[69gp]

So how did you repair the damaged wire?

Did you replace it all the way back to where it came from?

Did you do a butt splice in the switch gear?

BTW, thanks for sharing the pictures.

short was about 2' from the breaker. I cut off the last 4' of the cable and did a butt splice with a 2 layer heat shrink kit. The damage to the cable was from the point of the short back to the breaker. there was some carbon buildup that went back a few inches from where the short was. Work was inspected and passed.

the butt splice done by hydraulic crimp.

first layer of heat shrink

final layer of heat shrink.

this is a picture of the end of the cable. you can see some blue discoloration from the heat that was generated.

 

[Ponchik]

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Looks good from here.