Frightful compressor room feeder
Michael writes: I found this in a production factory that had a 600V, 400A feeders going to a compressor room, which kept blowing a fuse on one phase. Downtime was scheduled to test the feeders to determine whether any insulation was being affected.
The feeder run was quite long, but I stumbled upon this box where the cover was just hanging on by one screw. When I went to put the cover on, I discovered what was really happening to the feeders.
As it turns out, the fuse would blow and the wire would cool down. After the fuse was replaced, the wire would warm up and slowly sink into the connector, causing a ground fault.
The box was replaced with a bigger one, and connections were done to replace the wires inside the box.(Photos courtesy Michael Kelly of The Electrical Department Co.)
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Anthony Capkun
Electrical Business
House of Horrors
240 Edward Street
Aurora ON L4G 3S9
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