An arc flash happens when electric current flows through an air gap between conductors.

The fault current magnetic fields make conductors separate, producing an arc. In other words, arc fault is caused by uncontrolled conduction of electrical current from phase to ground, phase to neutral, and/or phase to phase accompanied by ionization of the surrounding air. Because of the expansive vaporization of conductive metal, a line-to-line or line-to-ground arcing fault can escalate into a three-phase arcing fault in less than a 1/1000 of a second. The heat energy and intense light at the point of the arc is called arc flash.

Accidents caused by touching a test probe to the wrong surface or slipped tool are the most common cause of an arcing fault.

Arc flashes can also be caused by:

Human error

Unfortunately, 80% of accidents are caused by human error – exposed live parts, misplaced tools, earthing fuses, improper installation of parts, wire wrapped around busbars, accidents during testing or fault-finding.

Mechanical faults

Loose parts, parts that break and fail, worn or broken conductor installation, loose wire connections, sparks due to breaks or gaps in the insulation, overheating of connections, busbar splices.

The elements

Dust, corrosion or other impurities on the surface of the conductor, water, oil, grease, water or liquid near electrical equipment, static electricity.

The SIVACON S8 that we manufacture is tested in accordance with IEC 61641 thus restricting the effects of arcing faults.

Here at Saftronics we are committed to supporting young people in the engineering sector.

The company has welcomed its latest crop of apprentices, 3 of whom, (Kofi Taylor, Ethan Joyce and Robbie Whittles), have come straight from school whilst one (Christian Denton) has come from a previous place of employment that has since ceased trading, he is currently studying at the Print Works.

All four will spend 3-5 years gaining skills at the Saftronics headquarters in Leeds. Through the apprenticeship programme, they will receive hands-on experience on the shop floor (manufacturing items like our bespoke MCCs), in electrical design, software and tendering as well as receiving mentoring from experts across the business.

This real-world experience will be supplemented with a specialist industry accredited course at Bradford College that the apprentices will attend to learn all aspects of engineering.

Jonathan Robinson, Director said “Our apprenticeship programme is very important to us. It is something of personal interest to me as I too started at Saftronics many years ago as an apprentice as did many other of our senior employees. The apprentices will be guided through their studies and given the chance to put the theory they’re learning into practice at every available opportunity.

“We really recognise what young apprentices have to offer and are committed to investing in the engineering talent of the future.”

On the 11th September, the Manufacturing Growth Programme (MGP) is running its first Manufacturing Productivity workshop in the Leeds City Region on how to improve Lean processes.

Delivered in partnership with the Leeds City Region Growth Hub and hosted by MGP client, Saftronics Limited, the aim of the workshop is to provide all delegates with a good understanding of Lean Principles and how waste reduction will improve business performance and the customer experience.

At the end of the workshop, delegates will be able to explain the 5 Lean principles and the benefits of applying these to the business, understand the 7 production wastes and how to reduce them, run value added activities and waste management and be able to explain and demonstrate the massive benefits gained by the implementation of Lean.

This workshop offers practical group exercises which are informative and fully participative and will help delegates identify challenges and solutions to take back into day-to-day working.

At the end of this workshop, hosts Saftronics Limited will be providing a factory tour to showcase their products and their processes.

This workshop is part of the additional £11.8m funding MGP received to continuing delivering business support to SME manufacturing businesses in April 2019.

The Manufacturing Growth Programme will be delivering over 150 fully funded productivity workshops to manufacturing SMEs across England between August 2019 and September 2021. These sessions are open to all SME manufacturing businesses looking to improve their business performance with hands-on, practical solutions.

Manufacturing Productivity Workshops themes available;
• Lean Awareness
• Improving Layouts & 5S
• Value Stream Mapping
• Supply Chain – Inventory Management
• Problem Solving
• Quality, Cost & Delivery
• Change Management
• Vision & Strategy

These workshops offer practical solutions to implement into your employee’s role, encourage teamwork and collaboration and are a place to share real-life manufacturing experiences with likeminded business people and of course, are free of charge!

Each theme will be ran at least once in the 16 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) regions the Manufacturing Growth Programme delivers in, ending in September 2021. A maximum of 2 delegates per company per workshop are permitted.

To find out more and to book places, visit www.manufacturinggrowthprogramme.co.uk/workshops or follow @mfggrowthp on twitter.

Saftronics are manufacturers and suppliers of Motor Control Centres, Control Panels and are Siemens Partners.

Thank you to Andy Dyer for coming today to go through the features and benefits of LOGO! the intelligent logic module from Siemens which many of our customers are asking about for their small automation projects. The LOGO! Logic Module saves space in the control cabinet, and lets you easily implement functions, such as time-delay switches, time relays, counters and auxiliary relays.

With regards to the ARC containment in low voltage assemblies, the testing under arcing conditions is considered to be a voluntary/special test and not a specified requirement of BS EN 61439 so not all IEC low voltage assemblies currently in use have under gone the tests. The testing/level of protection is generally at the manufacturer’s discretion or an agreement with the manufacturer and the end user. The test standard is IEC/TR 61641.

The purpose of these tests is to assess the low voltage assembly’s ability to limit the risk of injury and damage which result from an internal arcing fault.

Assessment criteria for personnel protection (criteria 1-5):

1. Properly secured doors, covers, etc., must not open.
2. Parts (of the switchgear and controlgear assembly) must not pose a risk of injury or damage by becoming detached and / or projected as a result of the arc fault.
3. No holes must form in the freely accessible external parts of the enclosure due to burn-out or other effects as a result of arc exposure.
4. Vertically attached indicators must not ignite (indicators which are ignited by burning coats of paint or burning labels are to be excluded from this assessment).
5. The protective conductor circuit for touchable parts of the enclosure must remain functioning.

Assessment criteria for system protection (criteria 6-7):

6. The arc must be restricted to a defined zone and no re-ignition must take place in the adjoining zones.

Additional condition for emergency operation:

7. Emergency operation of the switchgear and control gear assembly must be possible after fault rectification or after disconnection or de-installation of the affected functional units. This has to be verified by means of an insulation test with 1.5 times the value of the rated operating voltage over 1 minute.

To meet the test requirements the protective measures are either active or passive protection as shown below;

Whilst the Siemens Sivacon S8 has been tested to meet the criteria of IEC/TR 61641 they have come up with a level concept for flexibility and cost-efficient solutions to the end users actual requirements.

Siemens Partners were invited to attend a digital conference in Liverpool earlier this month. The event, Siemens Digitalks19, was attended by over 800 people including our Directors.

Siemens Director of Business Development and Communications, Justin Kelly, commented about the evolution of the digital mindset and the powerful part that Siemens have played in making this shift a reality.

“I don’t think there are many boardrooms around where Internet of Things (IoT) and digital transformation aren’t topics of conversation these days”. he said

However, there’s still a lot to learn about how we can apply our knowledge to each business to pull-out the value,” he added. “It’s an exciting proposition.”

Mark Godfrey and Lisa Lister presented at Clarion Solicitor’s annual automation and robotics seminar on 19 June alongside Rolls Royce, The Oakland Group and Universal Robots.

Many businesses are looking to see how they can capitalise on all the manufacturing data that automated or robotic processes are creating. Increasingly, the data allows businesses to gain insight across business processes. It can potentially help them see areas for innovation or better ways to collaborate with customers or suppliers.

The event was attended by an audience of more than 60 representatives, from a broad cross-section of the manufacturing sector. A great profile raising event for Saftronics on a regional platform.

Saftronics are delighted to announce that we have been awarded a £160,000 contract to provide two motor control centres (MCCs) for vessels used in the oil industry off Brazil with discussions to potentially provide two more in the future.

The Brazilian customer has a 12-strong fleet of floating production storage and offloading vessels (FPSO) that need fitting with the new MCCs which could lead to a total £1.9m order.

MCCs, often used in industrial and large commercial buildings, are an assembly to control separate electric motors from a central location such as a machine room. FPSOs are widely used in the global oil and gas sector, to moor near off-shore drilling rigs so that the oil tankers do not have to sail too close while loading.

Our client, who is active in sectors including petrochemicals, oil, natural gas, electricity, chemical-gas and biofuel, required a specialist approach to exporting the MCCs, which we secured through overseas trade specialist, Chamber International, which provided help, advice and in-house training.

Saftronics head of sales and marketing, Paul Stead, says: “The client approached us after a recommendation as we have other MCCs in operations in FPSOs off Brazil. We are very pleased to have secured the sales for the first two FPSOs but the chance of the repeat business gives the contract real importance.

“Since the downturn in the oil and gas sector, our export market has been impacted, and, while we have successfully concentrated our sales efforts into the UK, this latest success in Brazil proves we can still win top-quality business worldwide.

“From our initial meeting, Chamber International fully understood and advised on our specialist requirements.”

Saftronics exports worldwide with a partner company in the USA but current exports are below five per cent of sales and the business plans to explore more overseas markets in the next three years.

Chamber International director: “Chamber International director, Tim Bailey says: “Saftronics is another example of a Yorkshire-based, world-class specialist manufacturer that is setting a fabulous example to other businesses who consider exporting to be too great a challenge”

Chamber International helps hundreds of new and experienced exporters throughout the UK with a wide range of specialist services to make exporting easier and more cost effective.

Photo: [L to R: Ben Wilson and Jess Sugden, MPM Ltd, Tracey Dawson and Amy Shenton, Daletech Electronics, Paul Stead and Jake Sheffield, Saftronics]

Apprentices Jess Sugden, Amy Shenton and our very own, Jake Sheffield took the stage at a recent Leeds Manufacturing Festival event, sharing their perspective on why they chose apprenticeships over other career paths and lessons for employers wanting to recruit young people into their business.

For young people, there was some equally direct advice: “Do your research on what you want to do and the kind of company you want to work for,” said Jake, an apprentice who has been with since last year. “Go to open days and visit different companies. Make sure they are offering progression.”

Managing director Mark Godfrey sees apprenticeships as increasingly important in bringing new people into the business and developing the skills they need.

“Our workforce is split 50:50 between the shop floor and office staff and we’re increasingly looking at other areas of the business, not just engineering, that could be helped by apprenticeships,” he said.
“Apprenticeships are the future for our workforce – they give us the opportunity to develop and grow people to fit our business from day one.”

Full article can be found here