It can feel like a huge sigh of relief once your facility is in compliance. But you may be thinking, "What now?" Before you know it, you will be preparing for your facility's next Arc Flash Analysis. Here are our top five tips to maintaining your facility's model.
1. Update, Update, Update
You’ve done the work to get your model updated and your facility in compliance. It may have been a headache finding the paperwork for the projects that occurred since your last analysis. Additionally, the mountain of items that needed to be updated took an extensive amount of your time away from your regular responsibilities. To reduce the mountain of project paperwork in the last five years, update the model as the projects finish.
2. Keep Paperwork Related to Any Changes in a Single Location
Whether you update the model as projects happen or do so every five years, keep a record of all project quotes and final reports in a specified folder that can be shared with your Arc Flash partner. The more information you can give your Arc Flash consultant, the less guess work and the more accurate information can be gathered in a shorter amount of time.
3. Don’t Forget the Cable Lengths!
When completing any projects between arc flash testing, ask that the contractor includes data on the device settings and equipment used on the next analysis. With any project completed during the 5-year span, ensure that the contractors that conduct any work provide the data on device settings and equipment. If this does not get communicated, then you risk the chance of the data being lost.
4. Keep Like and Kind Equipment Together
A lot can happen in five years. Equipment ages, your business offerings may pivot, or you decide to scale your facilities to increase production. To stay compliant through these changes and growth cycles, we recommend matching like and kind devices whenever possible. Doing so improves the likelihood of properly maintaining device coordination, which can reduce risk. For example, it is best practice to replace a 42K AIC breaker with a 42K AIC breaker, maintaining the original rating of the equipment.
5. Work with a trusted engineering partner like Casne Engineering
Having a trusted consultant like Casne Engineering to ensure you comply will take the stress and work off you. From updating your model between the 5 years of compliance to deciding what are the priority updates, the Casne team is ready to support your facility. With over 40 years of success in professional engineering and technology integration services for critical industrial facilities, we develop and support engineered solutions using the best of breed products and technologies to complete Arc Flash Analysis across multiple industries. Contact us here to schedule a time to talk with our team.
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