One cause of serious injuries to electrical workers in the petrochemical industry is flash bums from arcing faults in medium voltage metalclad switchgear. First introduced in Europe, arc resistant switchgear designs are now being marketed in North America to eliminate this potential cause of injuries by containing the arc byproducts and venting the gases in a safe manner. This paper discusses current worker safety regulations, the arcing fault process, standards goveming arc resistant switchgear, switchgear design, application and costhenefit considerations. One manufacturer's experience testing a new arc resistant switchgear design is included.94-CH345 1-2/94/0000-0309 $03.00 0 1994 IEEE
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