Looking for Int. Rating of ITE/BBC K-1600S Breakers 1

[alB]

Hello All,

I am trying to find the interrupting rating for the ITE/BBC family of K-Line breakers. In particular, I have 8 K-1600S breakers and one K-1600 breaker.

A web-site showing the ratings would be best. I believe Siemens now owns that family of breakers, but their web-site is horrible for finding Power Breaker information.
But if I was interested in a complete power plant, it would be OK.

Thanks

alB

 

[Kunderd]

Where to find Information on Interupting Rating of Manufacture Discontinued Breakers?

If it is not posted on the breaker itself, then the Old Technical Literature for the series is the only other place I know of to find the answer. Unfortunately, I do not have access to any of the documents on that series.

Web searchs with 3 different search engines, failed to find a master circuit breaker listing showing interupting capacities.

The closest I could find was the sites for the following suppliers of used breakers, who are familar with all breakers made since the 1940's (and might have the previously mentioned technical specifications). Of course they would probably prefer to sell you one rather than answer questions about the ones you already have, but maybe one of them will be kind enough to direct you to the answer you seek.

National Power Equipment

http://www.ea-online.com

North American Switchgear

http://www.naswgr.com

Satin American

http://www.satinamerican.com

Circuit Breaker Sales

http://www.circuitbreakersales.com

Hope this helps.

 

[jbartos]

Suggestion: Visit

http://www.sea.siemens.com/power/product/pdprodcb.html

for more info

 

[alB]

Kunderd, Thanks for the sites, but you are right in that the info I'm looking for would require effort from them for no return.

jbartos, that website has some Molded Case Ckt Bkr info, but no old info on Low Voltage Power Ckr Bkrs. That is what I dislike about the Siemens website, not being able to find what I want.

Thanks for the effort. I'll find an old catalog somewhere.

alB

 

[alB]

Well, I found my answer.

The K-line of breakers have the following interrupting rating.

240Vac: 65kA
480Vac: 50kA
600Vac: 42kA (also know as 575V in Canada

The S in K-1600S means that the trip unit was retrofitted with a static trip unit, also known as solid state trip unit.

Ain't trivia grand.

alB

 

[jbartos]

Suggestion: The Siemens website have "Contact Us" option that usually works. It may or may not pay to create a website for dwindling technologies.

 

[rhatcher]

Sorry I missed the beginning of this thread as we see a lot of those breakers and I have one in my shop right now. The ratings you have are correct.

For future reference, a general rule applies to the interrupting ratings of older low voltage air circuit breakers based on the continuous current capacity by frame size. These are given at 480VAC, note that for Westinghouse and GE circuit breakers how it lines up.

Frame int. cap West GE ITE
225A 15KA DB-15 AK-15 K-225
600A 25KA DB-25 AK-25 K-600
1600A 50KA DB-50 AK-50 K-1600
3000A 75KA DB-75 AK-75 K-3000
4000A 100KA DB-100 AK-100 K-4000

I must give some disclaimers before I go on:
- 225A frame ACB's not currently manufactured.
- Interrupting ratings of above breakers may be reduced if equipped with series trip coils and/or short time delay trips instead of instantaneous.
- interrupting rating of above breakers will be increased (usually to about 200KA) if equipped with current limiting fuses. The respective models would be DBL-XX, AKU-XX, KDON-XX.
- Current production breakers may have different ratings for a given frame size. Example: Westinghouse DS-206, 600A frame, 480V I.C.=30KA but Westinghouse DS-840, 4000A frame, 480V I.C.=80KA.

With respect to the 'S' suffix, for ITE it does designate static (solid state) trips. Be careful though as it means other things for other manufacturers. Examples: For West. DS-206S the 'S' means higher interrupting capacity and for GE AK-50S the 'S'means means quick closing.

Finally, the ITE 'K' series breakers went to BBC then to ABB. ABB currently sells renewal parts, trip unit upgrades, and remanufactured breakers as well as offering remanufacturing services for these breakers. Cutler Hammer also offers a real nice trip unit upgrade for this breaker and good breakers and parts are usually available on the surplus market.

 

The K-line breakers are made by ABb in Flrence south Carliona, If you contact David Ringly at 843-665-4144 ext.370 he will give the ratings of these breakers.

Regards
Steve

 

[redtrumpet]

alB - just to correct one small point - in Canada we call 600 volts, well, 600 volts. 575 volts is the motor nameplate rating for a motor on a 600 volt system, just as 460 volts is the motor nameplate rating for a motor on a 480 volt system. So saying a 600 volt system is called 575 volts in Canada is like saying a 480 volt system is called 460 volts in the US.

 

[alB]

Redtrumpet,

Thanks.

I guess that I am used to seeing transformer secondary design voltages of 480V and motor nameplate design voltage of 460V.

I support two plants in Canada. All the low voltage substation transformers have their secondary winding design voltages as 575V. And all the motors are 575V.

This has been my experience. I haven't seen an actual transformer with 600V as the secondary winding design voltage (no-load voltage) I learned something today.

once again.

Thanks.

alB

 

[redtrumpet]

alB - your observation about transformers with 575 V secondaries is well taken, as I have had at least one client with the same setup. This client had two oddball substations. The utility voltage was 14.4 kV. The first sub, built in 1948, had three single-phase transformers nameplated for 15 kV-575 V. The second sub, built in 1972, had three single-phase transformers nameplated for 13.8 kV-575 V, with an autotransformer on the primary to go from 14.4 to 13.8 kV. I assume the 15 kV transformers were operating at the end of their tapchanger, assuming +/-5% tap range. I wouldn't hold these subs up as examples of engineering excellence, and the ratings were probably determined by what was available on the used market rather than being specified for the actual conditions.

For the record, (Canadian Standard) CSA CAN3-C235-83 (R2000), "Preferred Voltage Levels for AC Systems 0 - 50 000 V", lists 600 V as a preferred voltage, not 575 V. I believe 600 V is also a preferred voltage in the US ANSI standards.

Most transformers I have seen on 600 V systems, and all the ones I specify, do have 600 V secondaries. I think the 575 V secondaries are seen on older installations, when some electrical equipment was rated for 600 V max, not nominal, motors were still nameplated for 550 V, and voltage ratings were based on 115 V base, not 120 V base as is the case today.

 

[jbartos]

Suggestion to the previous posting: Reference:
1. ANSI C84.1-1977
Reference 1 sets Voltage Classes and Nominal System Voltages. The 600V voltage is a nominal system voltage. See Reference 1 for details.