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?
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.