Remote Racking Circuit Breakers 1

[arcflash99]

Does anyone have experience with the remote racking device manufactured by Safe-T-Rack?

http://www.safe-t-rack.com/

We are in the process of getting one to our plant to try one out and was looking for some possible pros or cons to the device.

Thanks

 

[BJC]

It's an ideal who's time as come.
Sounds like a great plan to me.
Here's another one.

http://www.chickenswitch.com/

 

[dpc]

No direct experience with this product. GE has offered a similar device for their switchgear for probably 40 years.

Siemens also has a similar "universal" type device.

http://www2.sea.siemens.com/Service...RACS-Remote-Safety-Breaker-Racking-System.htm

And for the skeptical:

http://tdworld.com/mag/power_utilities_remote_racking/

 

[king101]

ABB offers this device for there medium power switchgear. I've used it for customer acceptence testing.

 

[oldfieldguy]

I have some direct knowledge of the situations discussed in that TDWorld article, and I can tell you only that the article paints a rather rosy picture of the success of those remote racking mechanisms.

Some of these remote racking drives are famous for trying to rack an improperly positioned breaker. This results in physical damage to the breaker, rendering it unserviceable, and in some cases, the breaker is jammed into its cubicle and the whole bus has to be de-energized in order to safely remove and repair it.

Most of the "official" devices have some sort of torque-limiting means in the drive train to prevent these incidents, but it is not uncommon to find them "fixed" so that this safety feature is disabled.

With the push for safety, the remote racking devices are becoming ubiquitous, so I suspect we'll see more problems realted to their use and abuse.

old field guy

 

[arcflash99]

This particular unit has a torque limiter for the different manufacturer's breakers. It also counts number of turns as well as displaying "real time travel position". There are different transmissions for the different breaker types/ frames.

king 101, how is the quality of the Safe T Rack device, ease of use etc.

 

[dpc]

Some of these remote racking drives are famous for trying to rack an improperly positioned breaker.

This could apply to some electricians I've known as well.

Most of the devices I've seen have some type of torque limiting. But a 50' cable isn't going to be long enough to get out of the flash hazard zone in a lot of cases.

 

[arcflash99]

All of our technicians are instructed to hand crank the breaker to ensure it is inserted correctly, then connect the device and get out of harm's way to operate the RR device.

 

[Breakerboy]

I am the project manager for our plants remote breaker racking project. We are installing Safe-T-Rack systems in all 90 of our plants 13.8kv & 4.16kv breakers. We completed phase one with 34 breakers last fall and are very happy with the system, the ease of installation and the performance of the system. I noticed some of the earlier respondents questioned some systems allowing the breaker to continue to rack even when a problems existed with the breaker. Safe-T-Rack is the only system we found that did provide protection for the equipment and gave the operator some ability to know the status of the breaker even though he/she is 30-40 ft away and the door is closed. We are commencing phase two and will complete most of our breakers on line and within the next year.

We highly recommend Safe-T-Rack and the company in general, they let you demo the system in house, they offer great support and they are problem solvers.

 

[arcflash99]

Thanks Breakerboy.

I have a system controller on order and a couple of kits to try out. While there is a substantial up-front cost. I believe it will be worth it.

We have approximately 200-250 breakers to retrofit so it will take a few years.

Next year we will convert the subs we are scheduled to PM and work from there. Also, we will be purchasing another system controller and extra transmissions.

 

[moreause]

i do field service mi i don't consider those remote thing good stuff, because you can't feel when the breaker is problematic

but reading this i was just wondering how come nobody come out with the old idea

using a 3 phase winding rotor, so you could rack it remotly but still fell it

...

hum probably the size of it...but i think this idea need's thinking about it

 

[ledbetter]

CBS ARCSAFE remote racking system is a universal unit that will work on all equipment without modification to the switchgear, it has redundant torque limit safety features and is easy to use.

 

[moreause]

do you have a link for cbs arcsafe, i did a quik check and didn't find anything on it

 

[Zogzog]

That is a nice system, the biggest advantage is not needing to modify the switchgear.

http://www.circuitbreaker.com

 

[arcflash99]

One of our local sales reps actually brought one to our plant to check out.

First off, at the time the unit was not approved by a NRTL. That is an immediate strike against our company policy. I suspect that reason for it is because it was manufactured in Australia.

Second, we have quite a few substations that are built off of the ground. They are either a PCR or an overbuild to an original sub.

Third, there were questions around the unit reaching breakers in 4 high switchgear.

Fourth, there were questions about if this unit could rack out 2 high breaks that require constant thrust to keep an interlock engaged (i.e. Powervac, CH VCP)


If you can get past these issues, maybe it will work for you. I can't remember the price, but it was more than what I was willing to pay for a piece of equipment that might not meet my expectations.

 

[arcflash99]

Well we finally got our STR system commissioned. We opted to start with a Westinghouse DS-416 breaker software and installed a few cubicle kits to get practice for our upcoming turnaround where we’ll install another dozen or so.

I am extremely impressed with this system. The portability (we have some substations 20 feet off of the ground), The flexibility ( system can be used to rack out many different manufacturer’s breakers), usability ( there are at least 3 different ways to keep personnel from misapplying the device to the wrong breaker, real time display of breaker travel, craftsmanship of equipment is outstanding).

I highly recommend anyone looking to protect their employees through the use of remote racking, take a look at Safe T Rack.

There have been a few learnings along the way as their client base has been almost entirely utilities and we are an oil refinery, which changes the availability of shutting down equipment, budgets, safety training, etc. The good thing is they are a still a small enough company to cater to a customer’s specific needs.

 

[dpc]

Thanks for the update!