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  1. #21
    VoltsandAmps Guest

    Default Question - Cutout Inspection

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    I am very interested in learning more about these AB Chance cutout failures. From all of your experiences,

    1.) Where do they usually break at?
    2.) Where are they cracked at? Are the cracks visible from the ground with using binoculars, or do I need to get up close?
    3.) What date range has everyone seen problems with? Just the old ones, like 1992? Or has anyone seen any problems with the newer models?

    Thanks, I look forward to sharing my opinon and experiences will all of you in the near future. Chris

  2. #22

    Default Just another pole fire because of a broken fuse cutout

    Story Updated: Jun 2, 2009 at 9:09 PM MDT
    By Anthony Congi Video IDAHO FALLS - Close to two-thirds of Idaho Falls was without power Tuesday from a power pole that caught fire.

    Eyewitness News was the first on scene to bring you dramatic video you'll see only on 3
    http://www.kidk.com/news/local/46762522.html
    "My two grandkids came in and said, 'Grandpa, the telephone pole's on fire'," says Michael Miller, who lives right next to the power pole.

    Fire crews and Idaho Falls Power began a frantic race to get the fire out.

    "All our circuits were still hot and energized. And the pole started to tip over at that point. And with all the circuits hot up there, if it had tipped over, it'd have been a huge ball of fire," says Idaho Falls Power Supervisor, Dee Wilson.

    You can see the fire eating away at the pole, becoming more dangerous every second. More power trucks arrive to figure out the next move.

    As you can see, this power line could come down basically at any second. There's easily 15 to 20 people here from the Idaho Falls Power company trying to make sure that that doesn't happen.

    The power company cut electricity and the fire department tried putting the flames out.

    "We didn't want to hit it with a big stream of water because it would have taken the power pole and broke it off and dropped it," explains Captain Brad Pettingill of the Idaho Falls Fire Department.

    Smoke and flames once again appeared.

    "The longer it burns the longer it burns into the grain of the wood. It's really difficult to put the fire out and it was really a long shot that we could put it out," says Pettingill.

    Crews used a truck to secure and stabilize the pole. People watched carefully knowing any slip could take down the entire section.

    Workers removed power lines and kept trying to extinguish the fire over, and over and over again.

    Once it was finally out, you could see the damage. Then, they knew the cause.

    "It looks like one of our cut outs, as part of a switch was broken and leaking voltage to the pole going to the ground. That caused heat, the caused the fire and burned the pole off and what's caused it to tip," explains Wilson.

    Finally after careful and diligent work, Idaho Falls Power was able to remove the section, take down parts of the pole, and start work to get the replacement up and running.

    Several people could still be without power; possibly throughout the night.

    The power company will keep working until the problem is fixed.

  3. #23
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Buffalo
    Posts
    3,000

    Default

    welcome to my world. on average I use my fire extinguisher about once every three months on pole fires caused by cutout failures. just a tip for the younger lineman, when you direct your extinguisher stay up wind and try not to get any powder on the insulators. if you do get some on them plan on replacing the insulators. the purple K will cause tracking issues. don't get any powder on the transformer bushings or you'll end up making more work for yourself. i'm a troubleman so I arive on the sceene fairly quickly and can usually save the pole by isolating the fault getting the fire out and restoring that portion of feeder as quick as possible.

  4. #24

    Default

    i worked in an area where a seasoned linemen lost both arms due to a bad potted porcelain AB chance cutout...They then decided, after years of lineworkers saying someone is gonna get hurt or killed to change them out. Now every pole that we roll up to to do work on, if there is a potted porcelain cutout on it, it must be changed out before we can start our work on that pole...I don't beleive we are required to change out the banded ones (they are held together by a metal band around the porcelain.) Seems a little reactive to wait for accidents to happen before they get changed out, but i'm sure its like that in a lot of places..Sad thing to happen due to faulty equipment.

  5. #25

    Default

    So what happened to the lineman who lost both his arms? Did he get any form of compensation? (Although NOTHING could compensate for losing both your arms.)
    Portable defibrillators were first invented to save the lives of linemen. Where's yours?

    www.bigclive.com

  6. Default some picts. of ct. failure


  7. Default Mass accident

    The incident in mass. was on National Grid property. The lineman went up to tighten a bolt on a guy plate and as he was doing so, the cutout broke in half and swung down and came in contact with his arms. Instead of blame being put on the cutout for failure, the company of course blamed the incident on the lineman not wearing rubber gloves at the time. Agreed he should have been, but its usually a number of factors that result in an accident, and the cutout WAS a huge factor here. I work for Grid in NY, and I know there are 1000's of porcelain cutouts still in the air in our territory, along with aluminum I'7 dead-end insulators. Company's are more apt to wait till they fail to replace, rather then have a campaign to remove them from the system. When it comes to safety of a lineman, their willing to roll the dice these days instead of doing the right thing, and paying for having them taken out. All it would take is having a few management persons open a cutout with a load buster, that looked good on inspection, and have it fail while opening. The ball of fire they'd get would be a good argument to have them all removed from the system.

  8. #28

    Default I'm With ya

    Quote Originally Posted by Gridhotstick View Post
    The incident in mass. was on National Grid property. The lineman went up to tighten a bolt on a guy plate and as he was doing so, the cutout broke in half and swung down and came in contact with his arms. Instead of blame being put on the cutout for failure, the company of course blamed the incident on the lineman not wearing rubber gloves at the time. Agreed he should have been, but its usually a number of factors that result in an accident, and the cutout WAS a huge factor here. I work for Grid in NY, and I know there are 1000's of porcelain cutouts still in the air in our territory, along with aluminum I'7 dead-end insulators. Company's are more apt to wait till they fail to replace, rather then have a campaign to remove them from the system. When it comes to safety of a lineman, their willing to roll the dice these days instead of doing the right thing, and paying for having them taken out. All it would take is having a few management persons open a cutout with a load buster, that looked good on inspection, and have it fail while opening. The ball of fire they'd get would be a good argument to have them all removed from the system.
    Grid has changed out a Boatload of cutouts to polymer nothing is going to say that the polymer stuff you are replacing them is going to last longer than the 15Years you get out of an ABC.

    The problem is the failure mode breaking glass and a swinging tap creating a pole fire and hazzard for the person working or dunkin donughts below.

    Be advised the problem is not just with ABC but also manufactures of the same potted porcelin design all have the same failure mode,

    Follow this link on more with respect to Pat Cataldo's mishap.
    http://www.powerlineman.com/lforum/s...hlight=patrick
    Last edited by CPOPE; 06-29-2009 at 06:46 PM. Reason: Dude

  9. Default

    "Dude" feel free to come to upstate NY and look around. Grid here has not changed out many of the porcelain cutouts. They change only what's broken. No campaign yet to get out of the air the ones that have been an issue for years. And not sure how long you've been around, but there are many of the banded porcelain cutouts put up many years before the chance ones dated in the early 90's, they continue to function fine. Even the very old box type cutouts continue to function with no mishaps as we have with the chance ones from the early 90's. And its true the polymer ones we're putting up may not by better in time then others. But I'll put my faith in them at this point. The extreme number of failures of the ab chance cutouts of the early 90's far surpasses anything that's been put in the air in the past. How many flashes and accidents need to happen because of defected hardware need to happen before the company's do something? And "dude" your talking just as the management would hope a lineman would. Blame it on the weather, instead of the manufacturing
    Last edited by Gridhotstick; 06-28-2009 at 07:15 PM.

  10. Default bad cutouts

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    i have worked all over grids system in ma in upstate ny for storms and down in rhode island. i have changed out hundreds of the porcieln cut outs. alot of them were all cracked and had to hold the high sides with a shot gun.

    was out on storm in upstate ny, had a pole that needed to be climbed told the ap to test the pole before he climbed when he hit the pole with the hammer the cut out crumbled and fell to the ground. the line was already dead. the porclien landed on the ap and gave him a pretty nasty cut on the back of his neck.

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