Remote Racking for Medium Voltage

[burntcoil]

Can anyone share with me about reliable Remote Racking mechanisms anyone of you guys have use for Medium Voltage Switchgears.

What are the limitations of such devices.

Thanks in advance.

 

[DTR2011]

The ones I recently used for Square D 35kV breakers were a PITA. The SWGR cells were not SQ D but an OEM nonetheless. When everything lines up nicely they work as designed. To me on this design, where the motor attached to the door, the door was too flimsy and could not stand the torque of the motor. The motor would need re seating many times, regardless of how well it was initially attached.

 

[jraef]

Probably the best one on the market right now. The owner of the company is a member here.

http://www.cbsarcsafe.com/

"Dear future generations: Please accept our apologies. We were rolling drunk on petroleum."
— Kilgore Trout (via Kurt Vonnegut)
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[dpc]

The concept is great, but the execution can be problematic. We have seen a couple of installations of newer ABB metal-clad gear where getting the breaker racked in such that it was functional took a fair amount of fiddling around to get the breaker is just the right position. At one site, a remote racking device was used and it was unable to get the breaker racked in to the satisfaction of the limit switches and various interlocks. Eventually, someone had to suit up and do it manually.

If the racking device hangs up or binds, then you are forced to manually intervene, possibly creating a situation that is more dangerous than just racking the breaker in manually.

We do recommend them, but they are certainly not foolproof.

 

[catserveng]

I have two recent experiences, both the CBS Arc Safe systems purchased by my customers. One for a fairly new lineup of Eaton VCP breakers at 12.47kV and the other an older GE PowerVac lineup at 4160. The customer with the Eaton breaker lineup has used the CBS system multiple times with no reported problems, this system is in a modular switchgear building with very flat and clean floors and everything is square and well mounted.

The other customer with the older GE PowerVac system has had a number of problems, although frankly most are, at least in my opinion, because the floor is not level or consistant in front of the gear, the breakers sections aren't square, and even manually racking breakers in and out we've had to fiddle with them quite a bit.

Mike L.

 

[flash00]

burntcoil, another alternative is the Remote Racking unit manufactured by inoLECT (

http://www.inolect.com).

From my experience, this unit is well-built and universal. Should work well for medium voltage switchgear. Good luck!