Arc Flash

A large number of serious electrical injuries and fatalities are caused by electrical arcs created during short circuits and switching procedures. As a result, NFPA 70E Sections 110.8(B)(1)(b) and 130.3(B), as well as NESC ANSI C2-2007 Section 410.A.3 are published standards requiring you to perform an Arc-Flash Hazard Analysis (AFHA). IEEE Std. 1584 provides guidance for performing arc-flash calculations. The regulatory driving force behind these standards is found in OSHA 29 CFR 1910.132(d) and 1910.335.

The analysis will:

Identify the risk of personnel injury as a result of exposure to incident energy released during an arc flash event for each specific electrical component
Identify the current appropriate ratings of personal protective equipment (PPE)
Establish the Flash Protection Boundary (approach limit distance) as required by NFPA 70E
Provide equipment specific environment and chemical arc-flash hazard warning labels per NEC® Section 110.16 requirements
Provide methods to mitigate the hazard risk, where applicable, in order to reduce PPE ratings

Why do we need it?

Get in compliance-an accident at your facility means inspectors showing up. Avoid exorbitant fines, damaged equipment and the anguish of knowing you could have prevented an injury or fatality.

You can be too cautious in assigning PPE. This will result in higher maintenance costs and reduced productivity due to the inefficiencies of wearing awkward, bulky PPE that may not be needed. You can protect your personnel and control costs.

Your protective devices may not really be protecting your equipment. Save your company the time, money and lost productivity when a protective device fails due to inadequate rating.

There are no shortcuts, accurate data in, equal’s accurate data out.