St. Louis-based Cooper Bussmann recently contributed $500,000 to the Arc-Flash Collaborative Research Project organized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), Piscataway, N.J., and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), Quincy, Mass. The company hopes the platinum-level sponsorship will expand the knowledge of the electric arc-flash phenomena with the objective of advancing codes and standards for greater workplace safety.
The IEEE and the NFPA joined forces on this initiative to fund research and testing to increase the understanding of arc-flash. The results of this collaborative project will provide practical safeguards for employees in the workplace as well as statistical data for improving electrical safety standards and predicting the hazards associated with arcing faults (and accompanying arc-blasts). The multi-year project is estimated to cost a total of $6 to $7 million.