Posted: February 23, 2023
By: Kerry McMahon
With power, comes great responsibility. Companies must never take electrical safety lightly or believe that safety training and PPE are enough. More than 90% of electrical fatalities among US workers are due to electrical shock1, and thousands of electrical shock incidents yearly result in injuries requiring time away from work.
Keeping that in mind, a special-purpose Ground-Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) is one powerful way to keep your workforce safe.
Prevention through Design
This technical paper released by Littelfuse describes dangerous conditions that lead to increased electrical shock risk and how GFCIs are one of the most effective preventative measures against electrical shock. GFCIs eliminate shock hazards by cutting off power when even the slightest amount of current flows where it should not. Usually, they are an out-of-sight-out-of-mind measure that requires zero energy from the workers for it to guarantee their safety.
Special-Purpose GFCIs
Special-purpose GFCIs, such as the Littelfuse Shock Block series, are specifically designed to protect people from electrical shock in industrial and commercial applications due to their higher trip levels. Here are a few ways Littelfuse Shock-Block can help avoid disruption and keep your operations running smoothly.
- Staying code-compliant helps you avoid costly fines. NEC 2020 Section 210.8(B) requires GFCI protection on 3-phase loads for all plug-in kitchen equipment.
- Keeps your employees safe. Workplace injuries in commercial kitchens are what drove NEC to implement this requirement.
- Simple reset when a circuit does trip. It’s going to happen. And when it does, there is no need to send an employee to the electrical panel to reset the circuit, simply press the reset button on the ShockBlock.
The Littelfuse ShockBlock 5000 and 6000 series are ideal for a range of applications, even those where water is present—including restaurants, industrial manufacturing, utilities, and more!
Case study
Shock Block SB5000 Offers Maximum Personnel Protection
Introduction
A global food production company wanted to take a proactive approach to ensure their workers in an appetizer-producing facility would be protected from an electrical injury. The facility creates a wide variety of appetizer items, which change frequently, sometimes on a daily basis.
In order to make the different types of foods, the production line equipment needs to be rearranged frequently. Employees have to unplug existing equipment from the production line, move equipment in and out of the production line to configure the new arrangement for the day’s production run and plug in the reconfigured equipment. Equipment rolls around on casters and there are numerous cable drops coming in from the ceiling for the production line. Moving the equipment around and plugging/unplugging electrical lines creates a potential hazard for the workers.
“There could be anywhere from 5 to 15 pieces of machinery being moved around,” said Robert Shirley, Littelfuse Sr. Sales Engineer, IBU. “This puts employees at risk.”
Recognizing there could be a potential hazard in this process, the company decided to take precautionary measures. “The customer made this decision to keep their employees safe and out of harm’s way,” stated Shirley. “Protection for their employees was the number one motivation. Their secondary motivation was to keep the production line up and running.”
The facility’s needs were assessed, and they purchased one Littelfuse Shock Block SB5000 unit on a trial basis.
Application
The customer was so pleased with the results that they purchased and installed 70 Shock Block SB5000 units in their facility. Shirley noted that there were two specific reasons for the customer making the decision to purchase:
1. The SB5000 is available up to 100 A
2. The SB5000 is UL 943 and UL 943C Listed
The Shock Block SB5000 GFCI offers a ground check circuit to monitor the continuity of the ground wire. If the ground wire circuit opens between the GFCI and the load, the Shock Block will trip the circuit with a ground check indication.
Outcome
The customer has been using the SB5000 units for approximately eight months, and they are pleased with the quality and performance. As a result, they are planning to purchase additional units for their other facilities. “The customer realized the Shock Block SB5000 was a good investment for the safety of their employees and for the uninterrupted production of their products,” stated Shirley
Did You Know?
And The Winner Is…
Shock Block ground-fault protection has been recognized for years for its award-winning technology. Winner of an Academy Award® for Scientific and Engineering Achievement has been used to protect actors, film crew, and equipment on sets where water or moisture can create electrical hazards.
Not All Products Marketed as ‘GFCIs’ are Actually GFCIs
The use of the acronym GFCI is not regulated, so anyone can call anything a “GFCI” regardless of whether the device meets the applicable GFCI standards for shock protection. Always look for the UL or CSA approval on the product nameplate or manufacturer’s documentation.
Time Is Money. We Save You Both.
Asset management is a core principle to maintaining a healthy operation, and as an asset manager, Loeb Electric knows how critical predictive and preventative maintenance programs are to your daily operations. For more information, contact Loeb Electric online or call us at 800.686.6351.
Speak with lighting & electrical distribution experts today.
1M. S. Morse, “A report on the current state and understanding of human response to electrical contacts,” presented at the IEEE Industry Applications Society Electrical Safety Workshop, Dallas, TX, USA, Mar. 11–15, 2013, Paper ESW2013-05.
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