Electrical Engineering and Safety

Electrical engineering involves a level of safety awareness and expertise all its own. Working with electrical equipment can be both extremely complicated, and extremely volatile. It is vital that anyone working with electrical equipment or machinery – whatever the application – is acutely aware of the hazards that come with it.

Whether using electrical equipment, designing it, evaluating it for safety, or constructing processes and facilities that take these potential dangers into account, BSI Engineering has the experience to do it right. The engineers at BSI Engineering come from a wide variety of different design and engineering backgrounds, and BSI Engineering makes sure to keep everyone trained and educated, as well as dedicated to service of our clients.

This Arc Flash Study project serves as an example of one of these safety-conscious electrical engineering projects.

Arc Flash Study

Services Involved: Electrical Engineering, Safety

Industry: Pharmaceutical

Location: Ohio

A major pharmaceutical company in the tri-state area contacted BSI Engineering, in need of improving their hazard recognition concerning electrical arc flash hazards and safe electrical work practices for their facility.

The arc flash study documents what amount of energy is available at electrical panels if covers are removed and an arc event occurs. Arc Flash labels are posted at the panels to meet OSHA requirements, and NFPA 70E requirements.

Specially developed software was used to document the electrical system, over current protection, length of cables, fault current, arcing current, and time of arcing to calculate how the arc flash energizes.

Four hundred and twenty three warning labels were then posted on electrical panels throughout the facility. Intensive, four hour training sessions were held for the plant’s electrically qualified employees, along with their team leaders. During the training, “Thunderbolt” was used to demonstrate the dangers of electrical arcing, backfeed, and electric shock.

Using lockout procedures and hot work permits, a training exercise using students was conducted to make a circuit “electrically safe”, so work could be done in a safe environment. The facility is now in full compliance with OSHA and NFPA 70E requirements for electrical safety.

 

Contact BSI Engineering

If you are looking for an engineering team, a consulting firm or project management, contact BSI Engineering today. We can bring the kind of detailed planning and execution that you’ve seen above to your project – whatever it might be. For more information on different projections, take a look through our Key Projects on the right.