Tyndale presents Arc Week: a unique, week-long educational look at the world of arc flash hazards through the lens of Shark Week. Join Scott Margolin – our dedicated technical expert by day and passionate shark enthusiast in his free time – for engaging, memorable parallels that bring important lessons about risk protection and PPE to life.
Catch it all: Season 1, Season 2, Season 3.
Arcs are clearly dangerous, but the question is, how dangerous? How do we determine how big a given arc, at a given set of energies, out of a given piece of equipment will be?
Arc incident energy is the potential magnitude of an arc flash. In other words, it’s the measurement used to determine how dangerous an arc flash could be.
There are several variables that determine arc incident energy including but not limited to: voltage, amperage, cycle time, arc gap, and the distance of the worker from the arc gap. In this episode, you’ll learn about commercial and industrial arc flashes coming from a “box” or a piece of industrial gear, which uses IEEE 1584 to calculate arc incident energy. IEEE Std 1584, Guide for Performing Arc-Flash Hazard Calculations, is a standard from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) that provides a method of calculating the incident energy of arc flash event. This calculation takes place in a standard NFPA 70E environment.
Starting with voltage and amperage, we explore what impact these variables have on the arc incident energy to better understand the danger workers that are exposed to a potential arc flash hazard could face.
We’re not finished covering the variables that determine arc incident energy! Please join us tomorrow at 2PM EST to catch Episode 2: Return to the Danger Zone – Determining Arc Flash Energy Part 2. Follow along as Scott covers the remaining variables that determine arc incident energy. While drawing parallels to Top Gun’s Final Dogfight scene, you’ll learn:
Do you have a flash fire – rather than an arc flash – hazard? The hazards may differ, but the valuable lessons in this series are relevant to workers in oil and gas and other industries that rely on PPE to protect workers from thermal hazards. Stay tuned in!