Message Board Thread - "Motor "J" boxes"

Title	By	Posted On
Motor "J" boxes	newguy	5/17/2006
I've seen posts and heard of people scanning motors and connections in motor j boxes. My question is how are they scanning the j boxes? Are they removing the covers while the motor is running? If this is the case, it seams to be an unsafe practice. I would like to scan these but I'm not sure on how to go about it. Any input would be appreciated.
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Re:Motor "J" boxes	Tony Holliday (HAWK IR)	5/18/2006
Hi Newguy, Normally the best way to do this is to install one or two IR Sightglasses into the box itself. Depending on the configuration of the box these may be installed into the sides or the front plate in order to scan the cable terminations both field and motor side. Make sure you install a product that has been successfully arc-flash tested, otherwise there is a significant risk of injury should an arc fault occur in the box. If you go to our website http://www.hawk-ir.com/image_gallery.asp and look at the upper right hand image you can see the kind of results you can get with this technique. I hope this helps, if you need anything else please let me know. Best regards, Tony Holliday Hawk IR International Email. tony.holliday@hawk-ir.com TOLL FREE. 1-877-4-HAWKIR
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Re:Motor "J" boxes	Laland	5/19/2006
Are you referring to "J" boxes as terminal boxes where the cable terminal to motors are spliced? Yes, I agree with you that it is unsafe during occurence of arc flashes specially that the cover of this terminal boxes are heavy for big motors. However, shutting down the motor in order to open the cover and run again for scanning may not be allowed by operations. Suggest you scan body temperature of the motor and establish a data base for that particular motor for trending. But If your J box do not have an IR sightglass, you're only option is to open it while the motor is running.
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Re:Motor "J" boxes	sharona	7/3/2006
It is not recommended safety wise to open motor lead box covers. We have removed them in the past when the motor is out of service and scanned them later but the time and effort involved was not justified.
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