Generator installation for welding

[charliesutton]

Hi all,

I've been to quote a job today and need some advice. Basically to give you an idea the customer has an old 50kVa army generator which he wants to use to power a new 3phase DB in his workshop, he wants 5 16a 3phase supply's for welders, mills and lathes, he's also wanting 3 single phase 16a supply's to power welders which is no problem.

Now the task in hand is what regulations with regards to earthing and RCD protection are in force for this situation, the reason I ask is because he has had RCD protection in the past and it tripped everytime he tried to weld on all 4 of his welders of which 2 were brand new. He's had someone out to it before and they have removed the RCD and fitted main switch, but I thought that supply from the generator would need to be 100mA RCD protected is this right? And if so will it trip everytime he tries to weld again.

Just trying to get some info on the regs regarding this situation.

Any help is much appreciated.

Many thanks in advance

Charlie

 

[Knobhead]

50% of your profit and I'll tell you.

Don't take work on you can't do.

 

[charliesutton]

50% of your profit and I'll tell you.

Don't take work on you can't do.

Its not that I can't do it now is it, it's the fact that I wanted to clear the regs up!

 

[Knobhead]

Best of luck clearing the regs up, the IEE / IET have been doing everything they can to make a mess of them for years.

You come on here and in your first post you expect others to do your work.

Do you have a copy of the regs? If you do sit down and read them. Then come back and ask if you’ve got it right, you’ll get help that way.

 

[charliesutton]

I have read regs and not a lot in there with regards to welding protection hence asked the question on here just like the majority of posts on here.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

When you say 'welder' you could be talking about an oilfilled transformer, a high frequency switched-mode voltage converter, big, small, old or new. We can't answer about tripping issues when we don't know whether the leakage currents will be milliamps or microamps.

As for the regs, they aren't a design guide. Design the installation to meet them, but don't expect to find all the answers in them.

 

[Silly Sausage]

I googled the thread title and came up with this...
Need Advice on Generator/Welder Setup

Might be worth trying there.

 

[charliesutton]

One welder is an old oil filled transformer the others are only a year old and high frequency,

thanks for for the help guys.