Spark Detection: Asset Protection & Tackling The Hidden Fire Risk

We have all seen at some point – that small, blue sparks appear when you operate
electronic device or appliance. While this is normal most of the time and mostly a harmless
event, this isn’t always the case. One needs to pay attention because in some instances, these
sparking outlets may be an early indication of a more serious and potentially dangerous problem.
Sparking could be due to insulation aging, physical damage (wire crushing, moisture/rodent
damage), insulation breaking down due to overloading, loose contacts or sub-standard wiring
practices. The problem can be more compounded in commercial establishments because due to a
large amount of hidden or concealed wiring, the detection of sparks becomes more difficult.
Prolonged sparking can cause damage to the wire/equipment reulting in costly down time of the
equipment. Further, Diagnosis and identification of the nature of the fault is also not an easy
task.
Typically, all establishments have a MCB to protect against short circuits. When short
circuits happen, the live wire touches the neutral line, leading to a large surge in current. This
spike energizes the armature in the MCB causing the circuit to break. However, sparking causes
small current fluctuations that is not large enough to trip a MCB which may result in this
sparking going un-noticed.. Prolonged Sparking over a long time can lead to:
1. The local heat generated due to continuous sparking can accelerate the breakdown of the
insulation material damaging the apparatus (can lead to a breakdown), cause an electric
shock and also lead to hazardous fire conditions.
2. A local spark can also cause carbonization of the insulation material surrounding the
electrodes. This carbon is conductive and over time, enough carbon can be built which
can cause a spontaneous fire.

The problem can be more compounded in commercial establishments because due to a large
amount of hidden or concealed wiring, the detection of sparks becomes more difficult.
Taking all these factors, our objective was to develop a solution which can detect this early
stage sparking and hence identify early satge faults in wiring hlping to prevent future
breakdowns and alsoprevent potential future fire hazards.

Our solution:
Our solution, is a smart way (AI enabled) to detect potentially hazardous sparks at a very
early stage (when sparking first occurs). Our solution is designed to be installed at the power
source of the apparatus/machinery. It is easy to install and is a non invasive (from a CT)
requiring minimum rewiring
The device is extremely sensitive and designed to sense and respond only to potentially
dangerous sparks. It uses a specific algorithm to distinguish between dangerous and working
sparks – i.e. the harmless sparks that you see when you flick a switch or pull a plug. Once a
harmful spark is detected, an alert is sent via an sms
We are currently looking for a market partner to commercialize this ‘new to the world’
product. The market entry model could either be an asset purchase model (where the client
directly purchases the product from us for a fixed cost or a services based model (where the
product is given free or at a subsidized cost and we charge for the services rendered).