This paper describes research by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's Pittsburgh Research Laboratory to develop an overhead power line contact alarm system for mobile equipment. Analysis of accident reports revealed that many workers were unaware of a power line contact until after an injury occurred. This suggests that many injuries could be prevented by an alarm system that alerts operators and other nearby workers when a line has been contacted. Sensing electric current flow through mobile equipment chassis and measuring electric field strength between equipment chassis and ground were studied as possible techniques for detecting power line contact. Experiments involved using these techniques to monitor energized cranes and dump-bed trucks operating on commonly encountered types of road and work area surfaces. Sensing current flow proved inadequate when operating on a high-resistivity surface such as asphalt, but electric field measurement was more reliable, performing well on several different surface types. Additionally, electrical characteristics of the cranes and trucks were examined. This confirmed that, in a power line contact accident, the main hazard to personnel is simultaneously contacting the equipment and ground. A prototype power line contact alarm system was constructed and tested.
Keywords
Warning-signals; Contact-alarm-system; Cranes; Electrical-burns; Electrical-safety; Injuries; Safety-research; Electrical-shock; Electrocutions; Overhead-power-lines; Truck-safety; Mobile-equipment; Accident-prevention; Power-line-contact; Dump-bed-trucks; Current-flow-sensing; Electric-field-measurement; Mining-industry; Miners; Workers;
Author Keywords: contact alarm system; cranes; electrical burn; electrical injury; electrical shock; electrocution; overhead power lines; safety; truck safety; mobile equipment; injury prevention; accident prevention; power line contact; dump-bed trucks; current flow sensing; electric field measurement
Contact
G. T. Homce, NIOSH Pittsburgh Research Laboratory, P.O. Box 18070, Pittsburgh, PA 15236
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.