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Fake circuit breakers

broadgage
Seem to be on the increase.

Makes me wonder if we should be testing samples before installation ?

A full and proper test requires relatively elaborate lab facilities, but perhaps a crude test involving say a vehicle battery and a 100 amp fuse.

This wont reveal all faults, but would at least weed out the most blatant "no trip" types.

An MCB tested thus might of course have been damaged, so perhaps test the odd sample and only install untested examples from the same batch. Rather expensive though.
youtube. fake MCB dismantled
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    The mains overload test is very wasteful - you only need the amps not the volts to perate the trip part. I agree for testing a B6 it may well be fine to use 30A of load, but the idea does not scale well to get enough amps for the larger MCB - consider the need to instant trip a C type 63A unit - if it does not trip the rest of the morning may be lost to getting the company fuse changed.

    Testing the thermal part of a breaker may be OK, at least in the smaller sizes, but  for the prompt trip tests I suggest that something more like a welding transformer would be in order.

    Mike.

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  • 0
    The mains overload test is very wasteful - you only need the amps not the volts to perate the trip part. I agree for testing a B6 it may well be fine to use 30A of load, but the idea does not scale well to get enough amps for the larger MCB - consider the need to instant trip a C type 63A unit - if it does not trip the rest of the morning may be lost to getting the company fuse changed.

    Testing the thermal part of a breaker may be OK, at least in the smaller sizes, but  for the prompt trip tests I suggest that something more like a welding transformer would be in order.

    Mike.

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