Overload of the Day

[kshansen]

Like those flat rate boxes from the Post Office say "If it fits It ships!"

 

[Joe H]

Multi-vehicle Mission! | A Fleet Takes on the Transportation of Tonnes! | By Sammie | Facebook

A Fleet Takes on the Transportation of Tonnes!

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Something heavy this way comes.

Joe H

 

[Pops52]

They put the "real" trucks at the back............

 

[OzDozer]

I've often wondered what it is inside transformers that makes them so heavy? I've seen these things go 600 tonnes in what appears to be dimensions that are relatively not much larger than a couple of shipping containers.

 

[Willie B]

I've often wondered what it is inside transformers that makes them so heavy? I've these things go 600 tonnes in what appears to be dimensions that are relatively not much larger than a couple of shipping containers.

I can't say, never had one apart. They have iron cores wrapped in copper. One big enough to feed your house weighs 400 LBS.

 

[Welder Dave]

Don't a lot of them have a cooling liquid too? Old ones were full of PCB's and needed special care to remove them.

 

[cfherrman]

Little ones are full of some sort of oil

 

[Willie B]

Don't a lot of them have a cooling liquid too? Old ones were full of PCB's and needed special care to remove them.

Askarel was not used by the time I was graduating high school in 1973. Transformers are still filled with oil, but no longer contain PCBs.
Also big motor starters were once filled with Askarel as an arc suppressor.

 

[Birken Vogt]

I've often wondered what it is inside transformers that makes them so heavy? I've seen these things go 600 tonnes in what appears to be dimensions that are relatively not much larger than a couple of shipping containers.

Copper and iron wrapped as tight as you can make it is what is inside them, plus the case and fins are a good portion of an inch thick steel, everything is heavy. Of course utility transformers may have aluminum windings but that is only for cost, all the other heavy stuff remains.

 

[MarcusZ1967]

Dielectric oil and if you don't keep the h2o below a certain ppm, bad things happen.

 

[stinky64]

When I did roll-off for WM was dispatched to a windmill site to swap a can filled with "dirty dirt" contaminated with whatever oil was in a 6x6 transformer at the base of windmill that exploded. Onsite tech guy told me the oil used created acetylene when heated and needs to be vented properly. Apparently this particular unit failed to vent and exploded leaving a burn/soot mark 100 feet up the tower, shrapnel everywhere. Pretty bizarre sight arriving to site 1 mile up a farm road into an isolated hay field and seeing 10 guys walking around in hazmat gear.

 

[Spud_Monkey]

NS/NP = VS/VP
NS = Number of turns in secondary coil
NP = number of turns in primary coil.
VS = voltage in secondary coil.
VP = voltage in primary coil.

 

[Welder Dave]

Might produce a flammable gas but don't think it would be acetylene. That would create an extreme explosion hazard that trying to put out a fire with water would only make it worse. Acetylene is the most unstable gas and is created from calcium carbide and water, not some type of oil.

 

[Willie B]

I'm sure there are toxic components in transformer oil, I believe it has been many years since PCBs in them. All oil is made up of hydrocarbons, with other additives. If it is heated or other reactions it becomes broken down to combustibles. If acetylene, I sure would be surprised.

 

[Welder Dave]

Yeah, I'd be very surprised too. There would be a lot of bombs just waiting to go off if something went wrong like a lightning strike or downed wires or a short. I certainly couldn't see them listed as meeting ULC standards.

 

[Birken Vogt]

Oil will burn/explode just fine on its own, does not need acetylene or anything else, but pressure to atomize it like a diesel injector and heat and an ignition source which transformers have plenty.

 

[Camshawn]

We did semiannual oil testing on our oil filled transformers. Minor faults (old age) inside the transformer cause different gasses to be produced. The rate of change gives a good indication of the internal condition of the transformer.
A quick search:
Dissolved Gas Analysis (DGA) of power transformersis critical to condition-based maintenance (CBM), identifying faults and preventing unplanned transformer outages. The gas levels in transformer insulation liquids can indicate the existence of a fault, and the gassing trends, ie. the rate of change in gas levels can be used to determine its severity.

The key fault gases in DGA are hydrogen , methane, ethane, ethylene, acetylene, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.

 

[Welder Dave]

That's interesting. CO2 would help extinguish a fire but I think the level of acetylene would be very low.

 

[Camshawn]

Dissolved gas analysis is a tool to know the condition of the inside of an oil filled transformer. The amounts of the different gasses are normally quite low. The rate of change gives an idea of the type of fault that is occurring as well as the magnitude of the fault. Tap changers for example create arcs as they operate and fresh oil might prolong the lifespan of the tap changer until a plan can be developed and equipment purchased to replace or repair.

 

[MarcusZ1967]

Yeah, I'd be very surprised too. There would be a lot of bombs just waiting to go off if something went wrong like a lightning strike or downed wires or a short. I certainly couldn't see them listed as meeting ULC standards.

Yup, that's what it does with lighting strikes....