Circuit Breakers Blog – Expert Safety and Usage Information

1600 Amp General Electric Air Circuit Breaker - Catalog No. AK-2A-50-1 Available at www.swgr.com

A customer called MIDWEST to ask why we did something called a “Reset Test” on his circuit breaker. He said he has had circuit breakers tested by switchgear service companies for nearly 30 years and never ever saw something called a circuit breaker “Reset Test.” He has Square D circuit breakers, Westinghouse circuit breakers, General Electrical circuit breakers and newer Cutler Hammer circuit breakers. He checked some of his old test reports and found no “reset tests.”  He had never used MIDWEST before, so he was pretty interested when we explained the reason and procedure for the reset test. The reason was a very pleasant surprise because it gave him greater confidence in the proper performance of his circuit breakers.  MIDWEST started using the circuit breaker “reset test” many years ago. It’s not a standard test procedure. You won’t find it in the text books or instruction manuals. You will find it in MIDWEST’s Training Manual under ‘Scars,’ meaning experience. It’s a carry over procedure from testing old dashpot type air circuit breakers and insulated case circuit breakers and molded case circuit breakers. The reason for the test is that occasionally, seldom but occasionally, a circuit breaker will nuisance trip when put back into service after it has been high current tested. For example, a 1600 amp air circuit breaker, after high current testing, might nuisance trip instantly at 500 amps.  Basically the over current device failed during the high current testing. This was far more common with older “non electronic” over current devices. New electronic over current devices are more reliable, but not perfect. Strange things happen. We are not talking about the service technician forgetting to put the settings back to the correct positions. We are talking about an actual defective device. The test only takes moments. In the interest of quality control, the reset test addresses the “consequences of failure” as opposed to the “probability of failure.”

Yes, we are paranoid about safety and quality.

MIDWEST Uncategorized air circuit breakers, circuit breaker, Cutler Hammer, GE, general electric, High Current Test, Insulated Case Breaker, molded case circuit breakers, Nuisance Trip, Over Current Device, Reset Test, square d, Westinghouse

MIDWEST had a customer call and ask if it was okay to remove the cover from an old 400 amp circuit breaker, live. Our Infrared Scan indicated the load side connection was overheating. They wanted to repair it, but didn’t want to turn the power off to the whole panel board. They needed to remove the cover of the circuit breaker to make the repair and thought they could just remove the four screws holding the cover on and carefully remove the cover. We explained politely that they were crazy to try such a thing. This was an old molded case circuit breaker and the arc chutes for this breaker were not fastened in place as they are in some breakers. In addition, the arc dividers were metal and they were held together with an insulated band. On some of these breakers we have to tape the band to hold the arc dividers together or they just fall apart. So the danger would be that you remove the cover with the line side still hot and one of the arc chutes falls out and the metal arc dividers fall apart. It would be almost certain that one of the metal arc dividers would short a stationary contact to a moveable contact and cause a horrific arcing blast, arcing fault.  Depending on the instantaneous, ie fault, setting of the main breaker, the fault might last for seconds and result in tremendous damage to the equipment and expose anyone nearby to serious injury or death from an arc blast. Because the fault is on the line side of the breaker, it wouldn’t take much to create a panel board bus fault. This is a good way to get someone seriously injured or killed and a good way to destroy a whole panel board. To remove the cover off any circuit breaker with the line side hot is a very bad idea. But to remove the cover of some of the older circuit breakers, with the line side hot, is just crazy because of the construction of the breaker. Inside molded case circuit breakers there are other devices that may fall out when you remove the cover. Besides all this, there may be something defective inside the breaker, just waiting there, for the first unfortunate person to take the cover off, and then it falls apart or breaks completely. You could get very unlucky. We call these things incipient failures and they can be some of the most nasty and dangerous defects in electrical equipment, because you are not expecting them. This is true whether it’s a Square D, Cutler Hammer, Westinghouse, GE General Electric, or Siemens circuit breaker or any other breaker manufacturer. Turn the main power off!

MIDWEST Uncategorized 400 amp circuit breaker, arc blast, arc chutes, arc damage, arc dividers, arc flash, Cutler Hammer, energized breaker, GE, general electric, infrared scan, insulated band, load side connection, molded case circuit breaker, old circuit breakers, overheating, panel board bus fault, Siemens, Square D Circuit Breakers, Westinghouse

We read about a disagreement between two bloggers over whether or not infrared scanning, or thermography, was needed if you torque tightened the wire connections to power circuit breaker terminals during routine maintenance.  What occurred to MIDWEST were all the possible deficiencies we find in old, new, and replacement circuit breakers, using infrared scanning, that have nothing to do with whether or not the load terminals were tight.  One of the nasty deficiencies is when the cable lug in an old circuit breaker is very tight, but the lug is overheating because the screw, holding the lug to the breaker output tab, is loose. We’ve seen brand new circuit breakers and replacement circuit breakers fry the load side tab of the breaker so bad that the breaker had to be replaced. This is true for new or old Square D, GE General Electric, Westinghouse, Siemens, Cutler Hammer, ABB, any manufacturer. It has nothing to do with a specific circuit breaker manufacturer.

Sometimes the lug is welded to the tab from the arcing between the lug and tab. There is a very sophisticated test one can perform during a maintenance outage to check for this defect. First, check for voltage at the load and line side of the de-energized circuit breakers. Don’t care that the main breaker is off and all the feeder breakers are open.  Check voltage anyway.  You are checking for something that shouldn’t be, not for something you know should be.  We, rather I, have personal experience with getting my hand blasted because a breaker was back fed. Very bizarre set up, unbelievable, just waiting to injure someone.

After checking for voltage, carefully and gently try to move the conductor coming out of each phase of each circuit breaker.  You are trying to see if the cable is loose in the lug and you are trying to see if the lug is loose, moves or turns, in the circuit breaker. You are not trying to force it to move. Just use enough force to see if it is loose in the circuit breaker. If the lug itself is loose, the cable or cables will need to be removed from the lug; The mounting screw for the lug properly tightened; The cables properly reinstalled; And the cables tightened in the lug. Again, don’t be too forceful. On small breakers, you can always make the lug move. Repeating, you just want to use enough force to see if the lugs for that old obsolete circuit breaker are loose.

If the conductive interface, between the lug and the circuit breaker, is damaged from severe overheating or arcing, the defective circuit breaker may need to be replaced. Sometimes the damaged area can be repaired.  MIDWEST does not recommend replacing power circuit breakers while the switchboard is energized. Be safe. Turn things off. Check for voltage everywhere.

MIDWEST Uncategorized ABB, cable lug, conductive interface, Cutler Hammer, de-energized circuit breakers, defective circuit breaker, GE, general electric, infrared scanning, load terminals, overheating, power circuit breaker, replacement circuit breakers, severe arcing, severe overheating, Siemens, square d, thermographic scan, thermography, tighten wire connections, Westinghouse