- Author
- Braun, E.
- Title
- Review of Fire Test Methods and Incident Data for Portable Electric Cables in Underground Coal Mines.
- Coporate
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
- Sponsor
- Bureau of Mines, Pittsburgh, PA Mine Safety and Health Administration, Triadelphia, WV
- Report
- NBSIR 81-2292, June 1981, 21 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Keywords
- coal mines | fire tests | test methods
- Abstract
- Electrically powered underground coal mining machinery is connected to a load center or distribution box by electric cables. The connecting cable used on mobile machines are required to meet fire performance requirements defined in the Code of Federal Regulations. This report reviwes Mine Safety and Health Administration's (MSHA) current test method and compares it to British practices. Incident data for Fires caused by trailing cable failures and splice failures were also reviewed. It was found that the MSHA test method is more severe than the British but that neither evaluated grouped cable fire performance. The incident data indicated that the grouped configuration of cables on a reel accounted for a majority of the fires since 1970.