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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,429
L
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This hidden panel was unknown, to the plant electricians, it appeared when it was installed it was visible, and within site of this machine, the installation of the display cabinet, took away the within site, of the machine the plug would not be a disconnect due to the weight of the machine, safety switches do fail, I belive it is best to look at the whole situation , when covering or hiding panels.
The failure of the safety switch, may have been the cause of injury, but not having the ability to quickly locate the panel, did not help.

Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 7,381
Likes: 7
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Les:
Unfortunatly, we have no ststewide property maintenance code that this would fall under. Once a job is finaled (CO/CA, etc) we (AHJ's) have no legal jurisdiction over covered/blocked panels, etc.

Heck, I heard a 'tale' of an EC who after the final on one house; took the bubble covers to the next house! It happened once, and, trust me, it won't happen again.

Jon


John
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 9,923
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If this was an IBM sorter (080,082,083,084) opening any cover should stop it ... assuming the interlocks were not jumpered out. Checking the interlocks was part of every service call if the CE was doing his job.


Greg Fretwell
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 2,498
T
Member
Why on earth are all US panels painted the same dark grey? That's something I never understood! And the doors basically look the same since the age of porcelaine fuses... All European countries have light grey or mostly white panels, sometimes even with elaborately designed plastic doors.
Besides, most DIN rail panels are a lot smaller. A 2 row panel, which would take up to 36 single pole breakers is (just a rough guess) 10x14 inches, maybe even smaller!

Joined: Jan 2005
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Cat Servant
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Tex, get ready for a good laugh....but I swear this is true!

The "engineer wonks" in the industry, in particular the ones involved in making the code, are of the belief that bare metal is best- you never know when you'll need a ground! Their attitude is, well, if you MUST paint it, make sure the paint can be easily scratched away by locknuts, and "while there is no code as such, we prefer grey, as it looks like bare metal."

There was also concern over intruding on someone else's color.....heaven forbid we paint it white (looks dirty too easy, hospitals like white), or blue (can't confuse it with water lines now!), green (that's only for grounds, silly!), red (that for fire systems, isn't it?), etc.

And many manufacturer's will resent your claim that they all use the "same ugly grey." In truth, several of them have gone to great expense to trademark slightly different shades of grey, so their gear looks the same, but is 'distinctly different!'

As for overall appearance, these engineer and lawyer-driven manufacturers are more interested in FORCING yo to use their products, than in appealing to your tastes. Thus, the non-standard components, continual 'tweaking' of the NEC, etc.

Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 2,498
T
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Oh boy...
Panels used to be about the same grey here too, but they were always painted by the customer. When Diazed screw fuses came out of fashion only main fuse and meter boxes were that color. Breaker panels have mostly been light grey and the newer ones are white or off-white. Also there's been a recent effort to get rid of all metal surfaces close to electricity, so most panels are PVC, if they do have a metal door it's hinged on PVC and carefully isolated from the rest of the panel. Steel switch boxes have been banned for new work (other than extra heavy duty industrial) for more than 30 years I think.

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