April - June 2005

Issued by : EBG - Electrical Systems & Equipment, LARSEN & TOUBRO LIMITED, Powai Works, Mumbai 400 072

Prospect / Retrospect

Safety - The Prime Mover

In any electrical installation, safety of the
equipment and personnel is considered to be of
prime importance. Hence, it becomes imperative
for all the designers and manufacturers of
electrical equipment to ensure that safety is built
into the product right from the product
conceptualisation stage. In fact, safety should
become the prime mover in the entire chain of
concept to product realisation.
Still, that is not enough. A design needs to be
verified by testing. It is essential that right at the
stage of selection of material for various
components, complete testing is carried out in
line with the relevant national/international
standards. This is extremely important in case of
insulating materials as they carry out important
functions like supporting, covering, separating live
parts. In case of any electrical fault, these
components need to withstand and restrict the
spread of damage. Testing will also ensure that

the products/ equipment definitely meet the basic

safety guidelines.
L&T is the trend setter in terms of technology and
innovations in the field of LV switchgear and
switchboards. It has always used its vast
experience of over four decades in incorporating
features which enhance:
L Safety
L Reliability
L Maintainability
L User friendliness
in the low voltage products it offers.
At L&T, all the insulating material used in the LV
switchgear and controlgear equipment including
switchboards gets verified to meet the
requirements laid down in the various national/
international standards.
This issue of L&T Current Trends elaborates more
on those requirements.

Visit us at www.LNTEBG.com

FEATURE

Enhancing Safety in LV Switchboard Glow Wire Test

-

Low Voltage switchboards form an

important link in the power
distribution system of a plant
which mainly consists of devices
like drives/motors operating at low
voltage. Hence, it becomes
essential to build highest level of
safety in LV switchboards.
National and International
standards define basic minimum
qualifications for switchboards for
their
safe
and
reliable
performance. However, they lay
down norms only for the essential
parts.
Based on the experience, safety
and reliability enhancing features
get incorporated in the products
as additional design criteria. As
time passes, end users start
demanding such features as a
part of the product/system.
Finally, these get incorporated as
a part of the product standards
themselves. Such additions to the
standards help enhance reliability
and safety of the equipment.
The product standards are
updated to ensure that the
products are safer to use.
IEC60439 a standard on LowVoltage
Switchgear
and
Controlgear Assemblies Part 1
that covers Type tested and
partially type tested assemblies
got amended in 2004. The
amended standard now talks
about Resistance to abnormal
heat and fire as a mandatory test
to be carried out on the insulating
materials used in the assembly

Mr. C.D. Mehta / Ms. Uzma Shaikh

Switchgear Design & Development Centre

of Low Voltage Switchgear &

Controlgear (switchboards).
In this article, we will discuss the
importance of the test (resistance
to abnormal heat & fire test) and
understand the requirements as
per the standard.
Importance of testing
Insulating materials (plastics etc.)
have found large application in
most of the LV switchgear
products. Components made
from various insulating material
are used for critical applications
such as insulation and support for
current carrying conductors.
Hence, its reliable performance
over the life of the electrical
equipment is extremely essential.
Usually, in electrical equipment,
insulating material for various
components
is
selected
considering normal service
conditions. But, when a fault
occurs in the electrical equipment,
temperature increases to a very
high value. This rapid build up of
temperature, even for a short
duration, can ignite the insulating
components. Ignition of one or
more component can lead to
spreading of fire thus causing
damage to other components in
their vicinity. In turn, this damages
the equipment resulting into
interruption of supply and huge
economical loss.
Further, when the insulation or
support to live parts gets

damaged, the live conductors will

get
exposed.
This
can
substantially increase the
possibility of a very severe fault,
such as arcing fault, in the
system, due to shorting of
exposed live parts or due to loose
connection resulting out of this.
Arcing fault will lead to heavy
damage in the system causing
interruption of
the supply, loss
of production etc. that is highly
undesirable.
The damage is not only limited to
the equipment. It can also cause
injury to a person working in the
nearby zone. It becomes
imperative to avoid these serious
losses and increase the safety of
the equipment and users. Thus,
the designers of these products
need to choose the right and safe
material and properly engineer the
components. This will be
depending upon its end use and
also essentially verify its
performance by testing.
While designing the components,
it should be remembered that
the burning behavior of
compounded thermoplastics is
not just a material characteristic.
It is also dependent on the shape
and wall thickness of the
application.
It is observed that in most faults,
polymers initiate or propagate fires
because,
being
organic
compounds, they decompose to
volatile combustible products
when they are exposed to heat.

Wire Test as per IEC 60439 are

reproduced here :
Test Parameters
1) Resistance to heat & fire:
Glow Wire Test Setup (Inset- Test in progress)

Glow Wire Test

With the amendment in 2004, IEC
60439 now mentions that all
insulating materials used in the
assembly of LV switchgear be
able to resist abnormal heat and
fire (Glow wire test). A test
procedure is also mentioned to
check the same.
The standard also mentions that
the products covered by the
same should be constructed only
of
material
capable
of
withstanding the mechanical,
electrical & thermal stresses as
well as the effect of humidity.

verify their resistance to such

abnormal heat & fire and simulate
thermal stresses that may be
produced on a component by such
sources of heat or ignition.
The test described in the standard
IEC 60439 is applicable to electrotechnical equipment, its subassemblies and components, and
may also be applied to solid
electrical insulating material or
other solid combustible material.
It has the status of a basic safety
publication in accordance with
IEC Guide 104.

Plastic components acting as

insulation or support for live parts
in an electrical equipment can
experience
a
very
high
temperature during fault condition,
which can either affect them or
ignite other components in the
surroundings.

The best way of testing the

electro-technical products with
regard to fire hazard is to
duplicate exactly the conditions
occurring in practice. But in most
of the cases, this is not possible.
Hence, for practical reasons, the
testing is done by simulating the
actual effects as closely as
possible.

The Glow Wire Test is done to

The clauses that cover the Glow

Parts of insulating material which

might be exposed to thermal
stresses due to electrical effects
and the deterioration of which
might impair the safety of the
assembly shall not be adversely
affected by heat and by fire.
The suitability of these parts shall
be verified by test in accordance
with IEC 60695-2-10 and IEC
60695-2-11.
Parts of the insulating materials
necessary to retain current
carrying parts in position shall
conform to glow wire test at a test
temperature of 960C.
Parts of the insulating material
other than those specified in the
previous paragraph, including
parts necessary to retain the
protective conductor, shall
conform to the requirements of
the glow wire test at a temperature
of 650C.
These requirements do not apply
to parts or components which
have been previously tested
according to this standard or

according to their own product

standard.
Let us consider following
examples to make the point clear.
Components
like
busbar
supports, housing for power
contacts made of insulating
material, should meet the
requirements of 960C as they
support current carrying parts and
failure of which can lead to faults
like short-circuit, arcing. Whereas,
insulating materials used as
barriers, sleeves need to pass the
test at 650C, as these do not
support current carrying parts and
failure of which does not directly
lead to a fault.
For small parts (having surface
dimensions not exceeding 14 mm
x 14 mm) a different test may be
selected (for example, the needle
flame test of IEC60695-2-2). The
same procedure may be
applicable for other practical
reasons where the metal content
of a part is large compared to the
insulating material.
2) Verification of the resistance
of insulating materials to
abnormal heat and fire (glow
wire test)
The glow wire test shall be carried
out according to IEC 60695-2-10
and IEC 60695-2-11 under the
specified conditions :
L on complete parts of the

ASSEMBLY or,
L on parts taken from these
parts or,
L on samples made of identical
material and having a
representative thickness
Test Procedure
The glow wire is a specified loop
of resistance wire, which is
electrically heated to a specified
temperature. The tip of the glow
wire is brought in contact with a
test specimen for a specific period
of time and a range of
observations and measurements
made, dependent upon the
particular test procedure.
The tip of the glow wire is then
brought slowly into contact with
the test specimen for 30sec +/1sec at a controlled rate of
approach and withdrawal.
The test apparatus shall be so
designed that the glow wire is
kept in a horizontal plane and that
it applies a force of 1.0N +/- 0.2N
to the test specimen during the
application of the glow wire.
The penetration of the tip of the
glow wire in to and through the
test specimen shall be limited to
7mm +/- 0.5 mm.
Acceptance criteria
The specimen is considered to

have withstood the Glow Wire

Test, if one of the following
applies:
L There is no flame and no
glowing on the sample.
L Flames or glowing of the
sample extinguish within 30
seconds after removal of the
glow wire, and
L The cotton or the paper
underlaid doesnt ignite or
burn.
Conclusion:
For any product to perform
satisfactorily under normal and
abnormal conditions, it is required
that they meet all the performance
tests as mentioned in their
respective standards.
Based on experience, features
enhancing safety and reliability get
incorporated in products. As a
consequence, the product
standards are amended from time
to time to cover all such aspects.
The latest amendment to IEC
60439 now also mentions a test
for the insulating materials used
in the assemblies.
Meeting this requirement will
help in ensuring the safety and
reliability of low voltage switchgear
and controlgear assemblies
substantially.

For further details on this subject, please contact:

EBG - Electrical Systems & Equipment, Larsen & Toubro Limited, Saki-Vihar Road, P.O. Box 8901, Powai, Mumbai 400 072
Fax: 022-5505 1024 * E-mail: kotnisnd@Intebg.com

ABCI

Member

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management of Larsen & Toubro Limited. The contents of this magazine should not be reproduced without the written permission
of the Editor. Not for sale-only for circulation among the customers. Editorial Coordinators : R. S. Mahajan, Neelam D. Kotnis,
EBG-ESE, Powai .