Panelboard certified as touch-safe

The ProLine Panelboard by ABB has been rated touch-safe per IP20 standards. The rating assures that an operator is isolated from hazardous or dangerous materials during operations and maintenance.

July 18, 2012

The ProLine Panelboard from ABB has been certified by Certifi-Group as touch-safe per IP20 standards. The comprehensive testing evaluated the panelboard for protection against solid foreign objects and hazardous parts. The IP20 rating assures that a probe the approximate size of a finger is not able to make contact with any hazardous, energized parts. ProLine Panelboard completely isolates the operator during installation and maintenance, eliminating the chance of human exposure to any energized components. The ProLine product provides a valuable feature to end users demanding the safest possible electrical components to protect workers from shock, arc-flash and arc-blast hazards while doing electrical installation and maintenance work. 

Traditional US panelboards feature an open architecture with the bus bar structure and breaker hardware void of any insulating material, exposing operators to “live” parts when servicing and installing. Such systems require the operator to manually secure the breaker with a screw directly on the open chassis bus bar.

The ProLine bus bar is fully covered and the interior is encased in resin for additional safety; and breaker connections are made in "wells" that prevent any contact with live parts, while also containing any arcs that may occur. ABB’s system features a breaker screw that mechanically secures the breaker with a connection that is not connected to the bus bar.

In addition to the safety design, ProLine reduces the risk of arc flash because branch and main breakers are selectively coordinated and current-limited.  This allows for quick clearing of faults which reduces the amount of energy let-through (I2T) during a fault event. Less energy being let through means reduced risk of shock and reduced risk of fire. 

ProLine Panelboard is suited for industrial and commercial applications like critical power, data centers, cloud computing, banking, insurance, and medical.

ABB

www.abb.com 

– Edited by Chris Vavra, Control Engineering, www.controleng.com