Transformer Shock

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rmonroe

Member
I am having an issue with a 1.2 KVA transformer (Primary 480VAC 1PH, Secondary 120VAC). This transformer is used on assembly machine we installed in our plant. After running the machine for a few days we encountered a problem with one of the functions. We had to open the panel door to investigate and in doing so I was electrically shocked when I open the door. I believe I traced down to this transformer.

When checking the winding on the secondary side with a VOM what type of reading should I see?

Thanks

rmonroe
 

Buck Parrish

Senior Member
Location
NC & IN
You may have answered your own question with the secondary voltage

If you touched any houseing metal parts and got shocked. It may be a grounding issue.
Is it bonded to the building steel ?
 

gar

Senior Member
Location
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Occupation
EE
080708-0722 EST

There must be an EGC (equipment grounding conductor) from the main panel to all conductive surfaces on your cabinet and associated machine. In other words the ground wire. Is there one?

What you you mean by
--- so I was electrically shocked when I open the door. ---
What were you standing on or touching separate from the cabinet door, and did you get the shock when you touched the door?
Or was the shock as the door was opening?
Is this a steel Hoffman type box?

.
 

rmonroe

Member
The secondary side of the neutral is bond to ground. And I did feel a physical shock from this occurrence.

Thanks for your input.

rmonroe
 

rmonroe

Member
Also, This equipment that we are using in this process has an oil filling process. In order to keep the oil contained all the equipment is setting in large stainless steel pans. These pans are not bonded to the frame of the machine.

Is this an issue we should be concern with?

Thanks

rmonroe
 

gar

Senior Member
Location
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Occupation
EE
080708-0848 EST

Any conductive surface you can touch --- the floor and any components --- should be connected together (bonded), connected to earth, and no current flow under normal conditions. If this is the case, then all should be at the same potential and no shock.

It is not clear to me clear what your physical position and envirnoment are when you get the shock.

For example: If you were wearing insulated boots, had one hand in your pocket and no part of your body was touching anything, and with the other hand touched the cabinet there would be very little current except for capacitive current.

With some sort of plastic soled shoes I read about 200 pfd. At 60 Hz this is a capacitive reactance of about 13 megohms. At 1414 V peak this would be a peak current of 1414/13 =108 microamperes. Note: 1414 V peak is 1000 V RMS. At 120 V source this drops to about 13 microamperes peak.

What does
The secondary side of the neutral is bond to ground.
mean?
What is ground? A wire? The earth? The building structure? Or something else?

What does the transformer secondary neutral bonding have to do with the problem? Assuming all conductive parts are connected to the EGC.

Find a water line someplace and assume it is metalic all the way to the outside earth. Run a wire from the water line to your machine area and connect to one side of a voltmeter. The other side of the meter you use to probe different conductive parts to see what voltages are present

An aluminum kitchen metal tray 11 x 16 inches placed on my basement floor read 100 pfd. This does not provide as good a connection to the floor as just touching the voltmeter probe to the cement floor. You might find that just measuring voltage from the cement floor to the machine parts would provide information as useful as a wire from a water pipe.

A high impedance voltmeter is useful in looking for your problem. If all the metal parts are bonded together, then from whatever you use as a voltage reference you should see the same voltage on all the metal parts.

.
 

cowboyjwc

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Simi Valley, CA
Are you sure you got an electrical shock and not a static shock? At our bowling alley I thought that I was getting shocked off one of the ball returns, but then I realized that I would get shocked off all the ball returns. I'm sure it has something to do with the spinning wheel in it and maybe the humidity in the bowling alley.
 

rmonroe

Member
We found the problem?this equipment power requirements is 480VAC 3PH with a neutral required. At the equipment supplier, which is in Germany, they wire a power supply pilot light on the front of the panel to indicate ?Power On?. They used one leg of the 480VAC and neutral to supply that pilot when the panel disconnect is switched closed. When checking from equipment ground to the exposed neutral bus my meter reading was 277VAC.

The problem is in our plant we are supplying this panel with a bus line that has only three phase power with no neutral. Without the neutral bonded to the equipment ground that is supplied to this equipment we had a hot neutral. At one time in this building I believe they had a Delta system, which I know we have a pad mount transformer that is a Wye configuration.

Again, thanks for your excellent response to my questions.

Best regards,

rmonroe
 

gar

Senior Member
Location
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Occupation
EE
080710-0708 EST

rmonroe:

Apparently you are saying that the equipment requires a neutral for the equipment to work. In otherwords it requires a Y supply. Is this for certain? Or is what is being called neutral something that should really be called EGC.

Does the machine really require a neutral for the main power components, or simply for the pilot light?

It seems clear that you have no EGC wire running to the machine chassis or you would not have received a shock by touching the cabinet or machine on any exposed surface.

If the machine really requires a neutral for power, and in the machine the neutral is connected to the chassis, then this would be a code violation. Any machine and exposed conductive surfaces (someone else can give you a more formal definition) must be connected to an equipment grounding conductor (EGC) and CAN NOT be bonded (connected) to any conductor that normally carries load current (neutral).

.
 
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