SWD breakers

[LarryFine]

Does anyone know when SWD breakers first came into being, and when they were mandated for use?

How about when Continental Electric panels were available, and who actually supplied the components?

My EE friend, who is now a professional witness, is working on a case where a Continental Electric panel is in use. The store employees have been using the lighting panel's main breaker to control the lights daily. The main handle broke, the manager had been using a screwdriver to operate it, and then another employee got shocked. My guess is a conductive part of the center phase became exposed.

Appreciate any info as always.

 

[don_resqcapt19]

Many older 3 phase breakers had a design that when the handle was broken, it would expose metal that is connected to B phase.

 

[don_resqcapt19]

The oldest code book I have is the 1978, and the section requiring circuit breakers used as switches to be marked "SWD" is shown with a vertical line next to the section. At that time the vertical line indicated a change.

 

[qcroanoke]

Does anyone know when SWD breakers first came into being, and when they were mandated for use?

How about when Continental Electric panels were available, and who actually supplied the components?

My EE friend, who is now a professional witness, is working on a case where a Continental Electric panel is in use. The store employees have been using the lighting panel's main breaker to control the lights daily. The main handle broke, the manager had been using a screwdriver to operate it, and then another employee got shocked. My guess is a conductive part of the center phase became exposed.

Appreciate any info as always.

The SWD marking was a question on my journeyman's test. And I got it in the early 80's.

 

[MAC702]

...the manager had been using a screwdriver to operate it, and then another employee got shocked...

And they are trying to find someone to blame?

I'm too young to help. SWD has been normal my whole career, and old residential stuff doesn't really have it be an issue. All my commercial stuff has been fairly modern.

BASIC electrical safety (like circuit breakers found in every building) should be right up there with firearms training as the most egregious safety issues we don't mandate in public school.

 

[jim dungar]

The store employees have been using the lighting panel's main breaker to control the lights daily.

A 'main breaker' would never be SWD rated. You can find information on breaker ratings in the UL White Book.
SWD is only applicable to 1-Pole 15A and 20A device. In the 80's, the HID rating was introduced for larger ampacities and multiple poles.

 

[MAC702]

deleted

 

[Jraef]

A 'main breaker' would never be SWD rated. You can find information on breaker ratings in the UL White Book.
SWD is only applicable to 1-Pole 15A and 20A device. In the 80's, the HID rating was introduced for larger ampacities and multiple poles.

This is right, a Main CB would have never been SWD rated, it was only applicable to 1pole 15 and 20 A breakers. They were misusing it all long and once the handle broke, an electrician should have been called to replace it. I’m going to bet that one was called in and since Continental has been gone for 70+ years, they were told the entire panel had to be changed because it didn’t have an SCCR and it was too much $$.

Continental was gone before WWII from what I was told by a junker once, absorbed by Bulldog, who then later was absorbed by GE. If the panel still said Continental, it was pre-WWII so it would not have had any AIC ratings, so replacing anything in it with anything new would have been a code violation. The only available options would have been finding a used breaker on the junker market or swapping out the entire panel. Breakers that old, even in the junker market, are nearly impossible to find.

Sounds like another case where someone is looking for deeper pockets to dig into because the turnip that allowed this to continue has already been bled dry.