Phase tape peeled off a 480 bus, sparks flew everywhere

Last Tuesday I landed a panel swap at a machine shop in Gary and the old labels were just painted on. I went to re-phase the feeder and one wrap came loose, arced right to the grounded case. Anyone else run into mystery color coding that was never corrected on the prints?

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1 Comment

stella90423d ago

That Gary shop job reminded me of one I did back in '09 at an old auto plant. I used to think paint codes were fine if the prints matched up, honestly I never pushed back on them. But after a near miss like yours, where a faded yellow stripe turned out to be the C phase on a 277/480 can, I changed my whole tune. That one was a 400 amp main and the label was barely a smudge, I caught it only because the breaker lugs had different size holes. Now I triple check with a meter before I trust any color, painted or taped, and I tell the customer to fix the drawings on site. Your sparks could've been way worse, happy you walked away to post about it.