+bigclivedotcom You know ... I'm not specialist in demolition or Explosives, but even I know you make a Explosion more potent when putting it into a water .. it's something about expanding gas ... any way .. I like what you did ... but next time I would suggest to do it on open field with white background :) you are lucky the charge did not blow the hole bucket, that would be a huge mess :D
+RoPo 0101 I think the water bucket was the safest way to enjoy the science of it all. The noise and fragments were mitigated by the volume of water. I could be wrong, but the reason water makes an explosion more powerful, isn't a matter of increased energy output, but rather a focusing of the pressure wave onto a target, i.e. a dam buster used by the British in WWII utilized a dam's own water to reflect much of the explosive energy back to the concrete of the dam. Shaping explosions is a fascinating science and art, one that I know little about without going to Wikipedia. :)
+b1aflatoxin Precisely - the deal with water is that it does not compress (much); water molecules in a fluid state are at a set distance apart and stay that way due to electromagnetic force, no matter the pressure or temperature (until such is enough to induce a phase change out of liquid). This means an explosion in water pushes the water out with the same force of the explosion, as opposed to air, for example, which DOES compress and thus reduces the impact of the explosion on the medium. In this example, the explosion shock waves would have bounced off the sides and bottom of the bucket, and combined with the upward portion of the wave to simply push the water up the open end of the bucket. Had the charge been more powerful, the bucket would have burst before those reflected waves could rebound and contribute to the "up" vector, making - yes - a big mess... but this is a very small charge, just looking at the casing it was in - probably less explosive than present in a high-power rifle cartridge. Doing the test this way was indeed a decently safe method, as the water contained the fragments that otherwise could have flown off with perhaps injurious force. And now you can tell I spent wayyyy to much time at my last job, which was a high-energy physics sort of establishment doing all kinds of work with things like explosives and absurdly high-voltage systems. I swear, I'll never get rid of the memory of the smell of ballistics gelatin... :-)
I remember watching this video shortly after it was posted and I've always thought it a cool design. So, you can imagine my delight when I found a blown 36kv arrestor on the sidewalk while I was out running. It's an all ceramic model, complete with black scorch marks and a partially melted brass connection. I suppose that lightning storm last night was rather serious.
I found this fascinating! In the USA, another type of line protection gizmo is the "recloser". The current of one phase always flows through a giant solenoid coil that mechanically disconnects the phase wire. When the phase current is high enough (like a tree branch falling on the line), the solenoid's design interrupts current flow three times (typically). Each interruption is called a "shot". If the short on the line (tree branch) isn't blown away in three shots, the recloser "locks out" and a worker is required to reset it via a special hook on a long pole. This design hasn't changed since 1950's.
+mastertraveler seenitall Yeah, we have them here. Occasionally something doesn't blow clear and after two reclose attempts I hastily look for the nearest flashlight.
When I went to a substation is AU they explained they initially the silicone part was ceramic but exploding ceramic can be quite nasty. In one case shrapnel travelled 400m to then pierce a tin roof. Silicone turns out to be a better alternative.
+David McQueen it is also cheaper, and faster to build (i used to work for the company that built that thing), I AU the main problem was hot parts staring grass fires when they failed, if they were built to code then they the ceramic version would have pressure relief built in
And when constructing/refurbing lines us guys can throw the bits about in vehicles and tools can knock them without breaking them. Ceramic insulators have been known to give very bad cut woulnds too
Yes they use a lot of silicone rubber insulators these days, here in the US as well. The local electric utility actually swapped some silicone or ceramic ones out for some glass (!) ones! This was on a 230kV or 69kV line.
Interesting design with the exploding disconnector. At my work, when the arrestors operate, they stay intact (mostly) and just force the transformer protection to operate (much larger TXs though) That arrestor seems to be from a pole top TX. Great demo.
Old soviet ones used to have both spark gaps and some other elements resembling MOVs sandwiched together inside ribbed ceramic tube without cutout. Quite interesting to see other type of device with explosives strapped at the bottom, because high voltage and explosives combination sound very safe.
Happy new year! Just had a lovely person try and drive themselves home and run into a power pole. We were treated to an impromptu fireworks display as about four of these arrestors went off during various stages of the repair presumably from the inrush as things were hooked back up. Out here in the rural midwest you can hear these go off from miles away, sometimes several seconds after a brownout or blackout.
Well done Clive! My HNC and Degree were in Power Generation and Distribution. There were some good gizmos to play with. 11kV oil immersed switches make quite a bank of a short circuit fault. I found this out when working in a HV Substation on Stanlow Oil Refinery and a digger driver went through an 11kV lead-armoured cable outside. :O) The surge melted a chunk out of the digger bucket.
Interesting...and the explosive in the dis-connector is there to separate the ground wire from the 11 KV quickly to minimize arcing during the disconnection.
I work at a utility and one of the strange things we see is that squirrels loooove to chew on the rubbery part and we have these on multiple different devices, from transformers to primary risers and along branch circuits just periodically along the primary and if a squirrel does decide to much on these, it often ends badly for them and the customers who are affected experience an outage.
+traderjoes I wonder if they've considered adding a "bad taste" agent to the rubber bits the squirrels like to chew on? Capsaicin should be especially effective, as it's been used quite effectively as a repellent for keeping squirrels out of bird feeders. Alternatively, denatonium benzoate could be used. This compound makes things extremely bitter. I know that certain kinds of wire insulation have denatonium benzoate impregnated in them, specifically to prevent them being chewed on. Of course, this might not be possible due to causing a degradation of the properties of the rubber (makes it weaker or less electrically insulating, something like that). Either way, I'm sure the idea is worth researching if the problem is causing service interruptions.
***** Yeah, chances are if a perfectly reasonable improvement isn't being used, it's because it's too expensive (or thought to be too expensive). Wonder how much a sufficiently detailed cost-benefit analysis would cost that compares loss of revenue and cost of materials due to chewed wires, versus the up-front cost of adding a bitter/spicy agent to the insulating components? Probably not a whole lot.
***** Sadly, these days you better have a cost-benefit analysis to back up your adage. I doubt that would cost much to do, as adding the bittering agent would be a fairly minor modification to an existing rubber formula (or just using a different off-the-shelf formula). Setup cost would be not much, again it's a modification not a complete re-tooling. On-going cost of production would be minimal, the chemicals used are well known and regularly produced in industrial quantities, if somewhat niche. Only reason I can think of that it would cost markedly more (excluding greed) is because bitter wire insulation isn't made in high quantities so cheaper methods of manufacture aren't usable because they only work on large scale production.
Bigclive: "I've calculated how much energy it would need to blow up." PhotonicInduction: "I drank a can o' beer and jammed thousands of volts into it."
Interesting with the explosive disconnect. The ones we use in NZ haven't got that, and basically blow apart or split open on the side. Just picked one up this morning from the skip and will do an autopsy on it.
All the new polymer arresters we use here in the States have them. There's thousands of older ceramic units on my company's 24.9kv and 12.5kv systems with them as well. The disconnects are loaded with a small explosive charge equivalent to a .22 round. The only units we have that are non-disconnecting have external gap assemblies in series between the phase jumper and the arrester unit.
HI Clive, i used to work for the company that built that, standard re opening procedure for the disconnects is along the ultrasonic weld (where the case split for you) using a hacksaw but no deeper than the plastic top case!, the charge is protected by the spark gap electrodes (shiny metal cups inside) from the blade, the explosive is a blank cap and the "heater" is a solid carbon resistor nominally 75 ohms normal film resistors have coil like tracks so can have inductance and also don't build up enough heat to detonate the cap. The arrester itself is one of the only non porcelain housings to be certified by national grid
I'd really like you to do a video explaining what's going on with all these recalls of battery products. EE power pack's have all been recalled, and the Amazon fuss about hoverboards... Why are they being recalled? is it because they don't have over charge protection, or is there an issue with lithium Ion batteries?
+The Cat Behaviour Channel It's largely down to the use of minimalist circuitry for controlling the charge of the lithium packs, and the sometimes reckless way the packs are crammed into small spaces with sharp metal against them. Lithium cells are really not tolerant of overcharging or puncture, and will tend to fail in a manner that causes them to give out all their energy very quickly, often causing significant damage to surrounding components.
11kV HRC fuses used in Oil Fuse Switches in 11kV ring main units also have explosives in one of the cap ends this fires a pin out which trips the switch open, this is done to prevent single phasing
+mikeselectricstuff Now there's an idea, although it would involve surreptitiously sending an explosive item in the post, and the inner exploding bit appears to be two overlapping metal rings which might obscure the interesting bits. I fear I may have to get a heavy welders boilersuit on and the facemask too and Dremel my way in gingerly.
Had to revisit this informative video. Witnessed 3 just perform flawlessly and yes power is out in the neighborhood. Other witnesess shreiked/screamed lol. Thanks Big Bad Clive!
+bigclivedotcom I don't know if anyone has mentioned this already, however my experience in working as a welder is that, when I am arc-gouging steel with half inch diameter carbon rods, the carbon rod will explode with significant force. To explode the rod, you have to run significant amps through it until it glows red hot, and you keep running amps through it for about 5 more seconds, and then the red hot portion explodes with the force of a small amount of dynamite, not unlike a sort of illegal firework that people might play with. Effecting explosion of the carbon rod requires application of improper arc-gouging technique, such that you gum up the steel with carbon such that you are able to maintain a closed circuit between the carbon rod and steel workpiece without vaporizing the steel. Anyway, based on my experience, I would say that it's possible that there is no explosive in the disconnecter, perhaps the carbon is all that is needed to provide the explosion.
I remember when I was 7 years old with my friennds when we were throwing rocks at it and it wouldnt break. We though it was some coloured glass that was up the street lights. Those were the best days!
There are older insulators on hv networks that are a greenish tinted glass, theyre quite tough but when they do break they explode into loads of tiny fragments
hey clive just wondering am new to soldering i just want to know what type of setup do you use because when i watch you when you solider its flawless :-0 i love it :-)
They use to be ceramics very long ago. I can only atest to that from personally finding them around my childhood neighborhood that was easily 40 years older than myself.
Is that the UK equivalent to the switch thingys (fused cutout)that pop on powerlines in america? I've been nearby one of those blowing on two occasions! Sounds like a 12 gauge and gives off a mighty flash.
For faster detonation what about a really dangerous capacitor bank? I designed a defibrillator tester a few years back and they have to absorb 600J in a few milliseconds. So of course we had to test it! Unfortunately I'm not sure 600J would be enough for your explosive bolt. It sounds like you used around 10x that from mains. It's quite a daunting spec: 10 millifarads at 1000V for 5kJ. Then there's the release mechanism to design!
My company makes power transformers. We use at least 100 arrestors per month but to my knowledge we never use this sort! The breakdown takes place internally. They short to the tank or to a buss which is grounded.
Hey does anyone know of a video on TH-cam where I can see one of these actually blow up? or what terms I should search for to find one? Thanks ahead of time if you can tell me.
From the looks of the small brass disk in the shrapnel I wonder if there isn't just a power actuated tool cartridge in there. Looks like a 22 caliber cartridge with a crimp on the end.
I agree with that after a second look and would be an ideal way of having a fairly insensitive cheap charge to make the bang. could have even been housed in the ceramic. If the gunpowder actuated Nailers changes are like those we have here in the states it would really only require a power level 1 or 2 charge (the standard scale being 1-5). Good eye and tha that's how I'd do it. Hey Clive you should look up videos of people using level 4 or 5 charges to drive .22 caliber pellets out of rifles chambered in .222LR with the results being insane velocities if I Remer right approaching 4000fps!
why would they want it to disconnect? Why not keep a constant spark gap that 11KV can't ever bridge? Seems a bit silly to disable your safety feature after it gets hit by lightning
+Andy Plater Guesswork, but if it didn't blow, as clive said in the video, it would break down and short to ground constantly. Otherwise, it would become a permanent fault and take out the power. Basically it'll survive one shot, and then cease to protect but leave the power on. Much like most surge arrester power strips, but bigger (and more effective)
+TheChipmunk2008 they use a piece of equipment now called an auto recloser which cuts the line when a fault is detected and re opens the circuit automatically when the fault can no longer be detected such as electrical storms or tree branches on power lines etc
+SinistaProductions True, but they'd still have to do a line check to see if the surge arresters had popped. The recloser mainly restores supply quickly allowing the line check to be done under better conditions, to my understanding This policy no doubt varies with which utility company it is
I like the soft silicon voltage dams. Bird shit can run down and create a semiconductive layer, that causes RFI. The flexible silicon helps dislodge the shit, compared to the old porcelain insulators. Places where it rains more often don't have these problems. The explosive charge is similar to military or aerospace exploding bolts. It's a lot like a small arms cartridge's primer, or those .22LR, I forget what they are called, "Colibri?". That sounds right. Those are like training rounds with no powder only the primer, so people who never fired a gun before don't totally freak out. It's enough to push a bullet through a rifle barrel. A resistive element heats up, cooks off the charge, bang, and it's disconnected. I'd like to have the arrestor for my antenna tower. I am using gas tube arc gaps.
Clive, from my understanding the 11,000v is the line voltage, so the phase voltage would be that divided by root 3, or 6351 volts RMS, thus 8980 volts peak phase to earth
I've no way to know, but I'd bet they use airbag gas generator units, eg sodium azide. An easy to use product that's already manufactured in huge quantities
Interesting, you shouldn't have a problem if you gently cut it, keeping the temperature low, maybe because you now know how thick the wall is you can cut a score line all round and crack it open in the vice (vice and grips)
I would guess that the explosive part is of the same type as used in airbags for cars, i.e. a salt that releases a gas when heated, rather than a chemical explosive component like gun powder. If my assumption is correct, the carbon rod in the middle would be heated by the current flowing through it, and once the current is large enough that the temperature of the carbon rod reaches the critical temperature of the salt, the salt releases gas which increase the pressure inside the coupling by a factor of maybe 100. The two halves of the explosive plug is then blown apart, breaking the current path. I believe that a design with an explosive charge like gunpowder and a ignitor cap would be more unpredictable, as a random spark could accidentally set of the blast cap, causing the coupling to break open. With this said, I still think it is a bad idea to open one of these, as the friction heat of opening it could be enough to trigger the salt - and I think we've all seen the explosive power of a car airbag...
Such as blowing the door off a microwave, sending it across the room and shattering a glass door that it ricocheted off of, with the microwave itself being knocked backwards off the stand it was on. And yet they’re considered safety features…? Then again, people typically don’t microwave airbags.
Now that was clever, and i thought there was nothing interesting about insulators :-). I wonder if those metal bits were coated with something. Can you remember the "Snap it" exploding twists of paper you could buy?, they had some odd rocks that must have been coated. 11kv is one of the voltages that substations can operate at, i think.
Surprising to see something like that is made of silicone rubber, as you say, they look like ceramic from a distance... :P Well, you can certainly say you popped it... :D
+Stephan S It's from a power distribution system (overhead lines) so they plenty of current to hand. If you wanted a high current 11kV supply at home (which I really don't recommend) you could run a pole-pig (pole transformer) in reverse. But it would take a lot of current and the output could cause instant death by the briefest of contact.
+Stephan S The reasoning behind the higher voltage, is the fact that you need a much lower amperage. This makes the loss in cables lower, and you get more of the electricity to the customers :)
+ONE MAN, ONE MIC, ONE CAMERA He went through a divorce and then was in hospital, but I see his channel was updated a month ago, so hopefully he's ok again.
+9ff70f96 HA! Graham, they are designed to be hit by lightning once, then the whole thing replaced. However, they also can only last for a decade or so(many outlast their life expectancy, which is how cliff got one) before they must be replaced if they never got hit by lightning. If the cap goes off, the whole thing is replaced, even if it was a fluke, for 'just in case' reasons, so yes, they only go off once, then the whole thing is replaced.
The utility company I work for switched from Ceramic to Polymer due to the potential shrapnel that ceramic insulators and bushings blast when they fail catastrophically. Lets just say that customers aren't happy when a ceramic arrester grenades shrapnel into their cars which are parked just under a utility pole.
Looks "a ok" to go through that black plastic housing, dont go through that inner steel one though. A Nice little micro grenade charge, zero black exhaust is a good sign from your bucket cam ;)
About 3 weeks ago we had all 3 phases fail out on the pole that fed to a buried cable and 4 transformers, turns out a waste lift station, at the end of the road transformer took a dump.sort of ironic
Get the Go Pro app then you can use your smart phone as a monitor and controller. The SloMo Guys could do a good video job for you. They love things that go bang.
It's interesting to witness you putting current thru an explosive device .. it''s what ohm-meters do: shoot a voltage across the test leads, as i know you know .... What if the device has 'manufacturing defect' ??? Don't you love yur hands??
+Tkj Tkj The device is similar to a standard electric match / detonator. It has a low resistance and requires a high current to trigger it. It would actually be quite complicated to make a device that could be detonated by the test current of a standard multimeter.
oh my god you must never probe an explosive device like that with an ohm meter. it could set it off! Basic safety for automotive seat belt pre tensioners which use a similar device.you really should put a warning up,this is serious.
Good grief man, this device is designed to operate at 11kV and is detonated with a high energy pulse. A high impedance DVM doesn't have enough energy to set it off. Chill out.
![[UNCUT] บอสพอล แผลงฤทธิ์ บอสพระ-นักร้อง ก. โดนแฉยับ! I คนดังนั่งเคลียร์ I 21 ต.ค. 67](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XKf6HeftoPI/mqdefault.jpg)
"Hey clive, you want an electrical disconnect?"
"Maybe..."
"It has an explosive charge in it"
"GIMMEGIMMEGIMMEGIMMEGIMMEGIMMEGIMME"
+Luke Den Hartog KABOOM! Yay!
+bigclivedotcom
You know ... I'm not specialist in demolition or Explosives, but even I know you make a Explosion more potent when putting it into a water .. it's something about expanding gas ... any way .. I like what you did ... but next time I would suggest to do it on open field with white background :) you are lucky the charge did not blow the hole bucket, that would be a huge mess :D
+RoPo 0101
I think the water bucket was the safest way to enjoy the science of it all. The noise and fragments were mitigated by the volume of water. I could be wrong, but the reason water makes an explosion more powerful, isn't a matter of increased energy output, but rather a focusing of the pressure wave onto a target, i.e. a dam buster used by the British in WWII utilized a dam's own water to reflect much of the explosive energy back to the concrete of the dam. Shaping explosions is a fascinating science and art, one that I know little about without going to Wikipedia. :)
+b1aflatoxin Precisely - the deal with water is that it does not compress (much); water molecules in a fluid state are at a set distance apart and stay that way due to electromagnetic force, no matter the pressure or temperature (until such is enough to induce a phase change out of liquid). This means an explosion in water pushes the water out with the same force of the explosion, as opposed to air, for example, which DOES compress and thus reduces the impact of the explosion on the medium.
In this example, the explosion shock waves would have bounced off the sides and bottom of the bucket, and combined with the upward portion of the wave to simply push the water up the open end of the bucket. Had the charge been more powerful, the bucket would have burst before those reflected waves could rebound and contribute to the "up" vector, making - yes - a big mess... but this is a very small charge, just looking at the casing it was in - probably less explosive than present in a high-power rifle cartridge. Doing the test this way was indeed a decently safe method, as the water contained the fragments that otherwise could have flown off with perhaps injurious force.
And now you can tell I spent wayyyy to much time at my last job, which was a high-energy physics sort of establishment doing all kinds of work with things like explosives and absurdly high-voltage systems. I swear, I'll never get rid of the memory of the smell of ballistics gelatin... :-)
+MrJest2 can't compress liquids, only gas. Liquids can be pressurized but not compressed.
I remember watching this video shortly after it was posted and I've always thought it a cool design. So, you can imagine my delight when I found a blown 36kv arrestor on the sidewalk while I was out running. It's an all ceramic model, complete with black scorch marks and a partially melted brass connection. I suppose that lightning storm last night was rather serious.
I found this fascinating! In the USA, another type of line protection gizmo is the "recloser". The current of one phase always flows through a giant solenoid coil that mechanically disconnects the phase wire. When the phase current is high enough (like a tree branch falling on the line), the solenoid's design interrupts current flow three times (typically). Each interruption is called a "shot". If the short on the line (tree branch) isn't blown away in three shots, the recloser "locks out" and a worker is required to reset it via a special hook on a long pole. This design hasn't changed since 1950's.
+mastertraveler seenitall Yeah, we have them here. Occasionally something doesn't blow clear and after two reclose attempts I hastily look for the nearest flashlight.
When I went to a substation is AU they explained they initially the silicone part was ceramic but exploding ceramic can be quite nasty. In one case shrapnel travelled 400m to then pierce a tin roof. Silicone turns out to be a better alternative.
+David McQueen it is also cheaper, and faster to build (i used to work for the company that built that thing), I AU the main problem was hot parts staring grass fires when they failed, if they were built to code then they the ceramic version would have pressure relief built in
And when constructing/refurbing lines us guys can throw the bits about in vehicles and tools can knock them without breaking them. Ceramic insulators have been known to give very bad cut woulnds too
Yes they use a lot of silicone rubber insulators these days, here in the US as well.
The local electric utility actually swapped some silicone or ceramic ones out for some glass (!) ones! This was on a 230kV or 69kV line.
Interesting design with the exploding disconnector. At my work, when the arrestors operate, they stay intact (mostly) and just force the transformer protection to operate (much larger TXs though) That arrestor seems to be from a pole top TX. Great demo.
Old soviet ones used to have both spark gaps and some other elements resembling MOVs sandwiched together inside ribbed ceramic tube without cutout. Quite interesting to see other type of device with explosives strapped at the bottom, because high voltage and explosives combination sound very safe.
High voltage and explosives?
I bet big Clive had to run to the bathroom to play with little Clive after hearing that.
xD xD xD
R O O D
You, sir, have some very superb analytical capabilities.
Happy new year! Just had a lovely person try and drive themselves home and run into a power pole. We were treated to an impromptu fireworks display as about four of these arrestors went off during various stages of the repair presumably from the inrush as things were hooked back up. Out here in the rural midwest you can hear these go off from miles away, sometimes several seconds after a brownout or blackout.
Well done Clive! My HNC and Degree were in Power Generation and Distribution. There were some good gizmos to play with. 11kV oil immersed switches make quite a bank of a short circuit fault. I found this out when working in a HV Substation on Stanlow Oil Refinery and a digger driver went through an 11kV lead-armoured cable outside. :O) The surge melted a chunk out of the digger bucket.
Maybe you could use a manual pipe cutter to carefully get into that plastic casing? The ones with the two sharp wheels that you just twist around.
i searched for exploding things on eBay and now there is a police car outside thanks clive!
The next town are wondering why their lights are out.
*Hooks up generator through transfer switch in my house.*
Another great educational video.
Thanks again, Clive!
I was having a pretty ordinary day, this cheered me up.
Interesting...and the explosive in the dis-connector is there to separate the ground wire from the 11 KV quickly to minimize arcing during the disconnection.
I work at a utility and one of the strange things we see is that squirrels loooove to chew on the rubbery part and we have these on multiple different devices, from transformers to primary risers and along branch circuits just periodically along the primary and if a squirrel does decide to much on these, it often ends badly for them and the customers who are affected experience an outage.
+traderjoes
I wonder if they've considered adding a "bad taste" agent to the rubber bits the squirrels like to chew on?
Capsaicin should be especially effective, as it's been used quite effectively as a repellent for keeping squirrels out of bird feeders.
Alternatively, denatonium benzoate could be used. This compound makes things extremely bitter.
I know that certain kinds of wire insulation have denatonium benzoate impregnated in them, specifically to prevent them being chewed on.
Of course, this might not be possible due to causing a degradation of the properties of the rubber (makes it weaker or less electrically insulating, something like that).
Either way, I'm sure the idea is worth researching if the problem is causing service interruptions.
+44R0Ndin some do, but many can't be bothered to because of the upfront cost
*****
Yeah, chances are if a perfectly reasonable improvement isn't being used, it's because it's too expensive (or thought to be too expensive).
Wonder how much a sufficiently detailed cost-benefit analysis would cost that compares loss of revenue and cost of materials due to chewed wires, versus the up-front cost of adding a bitter/spicy agent to the insulating components?
Probably not a whole lot.
44R0Ndin
Its sad really. As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure...
*****
Sadly, these days you better have a cost-benefit analysis to back up your adage. I doubt that would cost much to do, as adding the bittering agent would be a fairly minor modification to an existing rubber formula (or just using a different off-the-shelf formula). Setup cost would be not much, again it's a modification not a complete re-tooling. On-going cost of production would be minimal, the chemicals used are well known and regularly produced in industrial quantities, if somewhat niche.
Only reason I can think of that it would cost markedly more (excluding greed) is because bitter wire insulation isn't made in high quantities so cheaper methods of manufacture aren't usable because they only work on large scale production.
Bigclive: "I've calculated how much energy it would need to blow up."
PhotonicInduction: "I drank a can o' beer and jammed thousands of volts into it."
This made me laugh so much😂😂😂
Interesting with the explosive disconnect. The ones we use in NZ haven't got that, and basically blow apart or split open on the side. Just picked one up this morning from the skip and will do an autopsy on it.
All the new polymer arresters we use here in the States have them. There's thousands of older ceramic units on my company's 24.9kv and 12.5kv systems with them as well. The disconnects are loaded with a small explosive charge equivalent to a .22 round. The only units we have that are non-disconnecting have external gap assemblies in series between the phase jumper and the arrester unit.
Where can I get one in the uk
HI Clive, i used to work for the company that built that, standard re opening procedure for the disconnects is along the ultrasonic weld (where the case split for you) using a hacksaw but no deeper than the plastic top case!, the charge is protected by the spark gap electrodes (shiny metal cups inside) from the blade, the explosive is a blank cap and the "heater" is a solid carbon resistor nominally 75 ohms normal film resistors have coil like tracks so can have inductance and also don't build up enough heat to detonate the cap. The arrester itself is one of the only non porcelain housings to be certified by national grid
And I said, "Whaaaaat" lol. So happy I found your channel.
I'm about to get a high speed camera(1kfps and up).
Is there a place I can get those? I'm very interested in blowing one up at high speed.
I'd really like you to do a video explaining what's going on with all these recalls of battery products. EE power pack's have all been recalled, and the Amazon fuss about hoverboards... Why are they being recalled? is it because they don't have over charge protection, or is there an issue with lithium Ion batteries?
+The Cat Behaviour Channel It's largely down to the use of minimalist circuitry for controlling the charge of the lithium packs, and the sometimes reckless way the packs are crammed into small spaces with sharp metal against them. Lithium cells are really not tolerant of overcharging or puncture, and will tend to fail in a manner that causes them to give out all their energy very quickly, often causing significant damage to surrounding components.
+bigclivedotcom thanks!
11kV HRC fuses used in Oil Fuse Switches in 11kV ring main units also have explosives in one of the cap ends this fires a pin out which trips the switch open, this is done to prevent single phasing
We use ceramic ones on the railway, as far as I'm aware? Never seen a silicone rubber one, probably better choice for low-weight applications?
I could try x-raying one if you like...
+mikeselectricstuff Now there's an idea, although it would involve surreptitiously sending an explosive item in the post, and the inner exploding bit appears to be two overlapping metal rings which might obscure the interesting bits. I fear I may have to get a heavy welders boilersuit on and the facemask too and Dremel my way in gingerly.
+bigclivedotcom I would pay good money to see this. XD
Sensible thick metal castings are x-rayed (for hours) as well. Except for lead, of course.
Had to revisit this informative video. Witnessed 3 just perform flawlessly and yes power is out in the neighborhood. Other witnesess shreiked/screamed lol. Thanks Big Bad Clive!
+bigclivedotcom I don't know if anyone has mentioned this already, however my experience in working as a welder is that, when I am arc-gouging steel with half inch diameter carbon rods, the carbon rod will explode with significant force. To explode the rod, you have to run significant amps through it until it glows red hot, and you keep running amps through it for about 5 more seconds, and then the red hot portion explodes with the force of a small amount of dynamite, not unlike a sort of illegal firework that people might play with. Effecting explosion of the carbon rod requires application of improper arc-gouging technique, such that you gum up the steel with carbon such that you are able to maintain a closed circuit between the carbon rod and steel workpiece without vaporizing the steel. Anyway, based on my experience, I would say that it's possible that there is no explosive in the disconnecter, perhaps the carbon is all that is needed to provide the explosion.
I remember when I was 7 years old with my friennds when we were throwing rocks at it and it wouldnt break. We though it was some coloured glass that was up the street lights.
Those were the best days!
There are older insulators on hv networks that are a greenish tinted glass, theyre quite tough but when they do break they explode into loads of tiny fragments
hey clive just wondering am new to soldering i just want to know what type of setup do you use because when i watch you when you solider its flawless :-0 i love it :-)
0:00 - That's what she said.
"It's the volts that jolts."
They use to be ceramics very long ago. I can only atest to that from personally finding them around my childhood neighborhood that was easily 40 years older than myself.
Is that the UK equivalent to the switch thingys (fused cutout)that pop on powerlines in america? I've been nearby one of those blowing on two occasions! Sounds like a 12 gauge and gives off a mighty flash.
+rentacow Possibly the fuses, which clear explosively with a jet of flame. But then again EVERYTHING on an 11kV line goes bang.
For faster detonation what about a really dangerous capacitor bank? I designed a defibrillator tester a few years back and they have to absorb 600J in a few milliseconds. So of course we had to test it! Unfortunately I'm not sure 600J would be enough for your explosive bolt. It sounds like you used around 10x that from mains.
It's quite a daunting spec: 10 millifarads at 1000V for 5kJ. Then there's the release mechanism to design!
You should let me have that lightning arrester, I need it for my electrical utility collection!
I always thought what it contains, now here is the answer.
My company makes power transformers. We use at least 100 arrestors per month but to my knowledge we never use this sort! The breakdown takes place internally. They short to the tank or to a buss which is grounded.
Hey does anyone know of a video on TH-cam where I can see one of these actually blow up? or what terms I should search for to find one? Thanks ahead of time if you can tell me.
From the looks of the small brass disk in the shrapnel I wonder if there isn't just a power actuated tool cartridge in there. Looks like a 22 caliber cartridge with a crimp on the end.
I agree with that after a second look and would be an ideal way of having a fairly insensitive cheap charge to make the bang. could have even been housed in the ceramic. If the gunpowder actuated Nailers changes are like those we have here in the states it would really only require a power level 1 or 2 charge (the standard scale being 1-5). Good eye and tha that's how I'd do it. Hey Clive you should look up videos of people using level 4 or 5 charges to drive .22 caliber pellets out of rifles chambered in .222LR with the results being insane velocities if I Remer right approaching 4000fps!
Hey Clive i here the power in down where you live,you know out about that,lol ,another ace vid ,Happy Christmas.
+android /John Nope not here on the Isle of Man. The odd dip during the stormy weather but nothing major.
+bigclivedotcom I thought you lived in Scotland?
+bigclivedotcom I thought you lived in Scotland?
+android /John I didn't even twig that was a joke.... When you live in an island the power system does get a bit of a rough ride in winter.
+Elliott Veares I'm from Scotland, but am currently living on the Isle of Man.
why would they want it to disconnect? Why not keep a constant spark gap that 11KV can't ever bridge? Seems a bit silly to disable your safety feature after it gets hit by lightning
+Andy Plater Guesswork, but if it didn't blow, as clive said in the video, it would break down and short to ground constantly. Otherwise, it would become a permanent fault and take out the power. Basically it'll survive one shot, and then cease to protect but leave the power on. Much like most surge arrester power strips, but bigger (and more effective)
+TheChipmunk2008 I suppose so. I guess it requires manual inspection to actually check if any of them have blown.
+Andy Plater Yes, pretty much par for the course I believe after an electrical storm, especially if any disturbances have been noted on the circuit
+TheChipmunk2008 they use a piece of equipment now called an auto recloser which cuts the line when a fault is detected and re opens the circuit automatically when the fault can no longer be detected such as electrical storms or tree branches on power lines etc
+SinistaProductions True, but they'd still have to do a line check to see if the surge arresters had popped. The recloser mainly restores supply quickly allowing the line check to be done under better conditions, to my understanding
This policy no doubt varies with which utility company it is
I like the soft silicon voltage dams. Bird shit can run down and create a semiconductive layer, that causes RFI. The flexible silicon helps dislodge the shit, compared to the old porcelain insulators. Places where it rains more often don't have these problems. The explosive charge is similar to military or aerospace exploding bolts. It's a lot like a small arms cartridge's primer, or those .22LR, I forget what they are called, "Colibri?". That sounds right. Those are like training rounds with no powder only the primer, so people who never fired a gun before don't totally freak out. It's enough to push a bullet through a rifle barrel. A resistive element heats up, cooks off the charge, bang, and it's disconnected. I'd like to have the arrestor for my antenna tower. I am using gas tube arc gaps.
Clive, from my understanding the 11,000v is the line voltage, so the phase voltage would be that divided by root 3, or 6351 volts RMS, thus 8980 volts peak phase to earth
You're right, 11kv is the phase to phase rating
The ones I have seen in the states are all ceramic and attached to the sides of pole transformers.
+bigclivedotcom where the hell do you get this stuff?
+Sam Ashton The 11kV arrestor came from a local lineman.
That was interesting arrester, nice video!
Where on earth did you get that?
OH more things that go 'BANG' Please ;)
I've no way to know, but I'd bet they use airbag gas generator units, eg sodium azide. An easy to use product that's already manufactured in huge quantities
Interesting, you shouldn't have a problem if you gently cut it, keeping the temperature low, maybe because you now know how thick the wall is you can cut a score line all round and crack it open in the vice (vice and grips)
Isn't that whole thing just to hold the wire and stop it from touching the earthed pole? Why is there a cable at all on it anyway?
That's what insulators or bushings are for
I mean the cable comming out of the bottom. I understand it's meant to insulate the wire from the pole.
Because it is a surge protector. The cable out the bottom grounds the overvoltage spike.
I would guess that the explosive part is of the same type as used in airbags for cars, i.e. a salt that releases a gas when heated, rather than a chemical explosive component like gun powder.
If my assumption is correct, the carbon rod in the middle would be heated by the current flowing through it, and once the current is large enough that the temperature of the carbon rod reaches the critical temperature of the salt, the salt releases gas which increase the pressure inside the coupling by a factor of maybe 100. The two halves of the explosive plug is then blown apart, breaking the current path.
I believe that a design with an explosive charge like gunpowder and a ignitor cap would be more unpredictable, as a random spark could accidentally set of the blast cap, causing the coupling to break open.
With this said, I still think it is a bad idea to open one of these, as the friction heat of opening it could be enough to trigger the salt - and I think we've all seen the explosive power of a car airbag...
Such as blowing the door off a microwave, sending it across the room and shattering a glass door that it ricocheted off of, with the microwave itself being knocked backwards off the stand it was on. And yet they’re considered safety features…? Then again, people typically don’t microwave airbags.
Another excellent video
Now that was clever, and i thought there was nothing interesting about insulators :-).
I wonder if those metal bits were coated with something.
Can you remember the "Snap it" exploding twists of paper you could buy?, they had some odd rocks that must have been coated.
11kv is one of the voltages that substations can operate at, i think.
+zx8401ztv Snap it's are flint and silver fulminate in a neat tissue wrapping ;)
+pyro1324 I never knew what they were coated in, but they were fun ha ha :-D
+pyro1324 We used to make our own at Uni, using nitrogen triiodide, a little harder to make but the purple gas cloud is definitely worth it!
+Zyle haha, that substance is so freakin sensitive, you sneeze and FWOM!
how cool is that - blowing stuff up
Surprising to see something like that is made of silicone rubber, as you say, they look like ceramic from a distance... :P
Well, you can certainly say you popped it... :D
IF YOU PISSED ON IT ,WOULD IT MAKE SPARKLING DIAMONDS ?? LOL
"I'm glad I didn't take a Dremmel to it" one year later, he takes a dremmel to one while drunk. then explodes TWO on his table like a moron.
That's the miracle power of beer.
Well, technically he only exploded *one* of them on the bench D:
have you seen one with a Infrared camera. bad arrestors get thermal resistive heat and glow in the dark.
I should try that on local lines some time.
Who does this arrest? I don't get it
szili76 Lightning.
Don't you need to wear a ESD strap for this?
Very cool and interesting
See. If there is ever a zombie apocalypse you now know where to find explosives!
DON'T TOUCH MY FUCKING ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT!
That was very interesting thanks.
0:20, okay.... 11 K volts? THAT IS FREAKING AWESOME
Just a quick question, how would you get that many volts and a reazonable amount of amps?
+Stephan S It's from a power distribution system (overhead lines) so they plenty of current to hand. If you wanted a high current 11kV supply at home (which I really don't recommend) you could run a pole-pig (pole transformer) in reverse. But it would take a lot of current and the output could cause instant death by the briefest of contact.
+Stephan S The reasoning behind the higher voltage, is the fact that you need a much lower amperage. This makes the loss in cables lower, and you get more of the electricity to the customers :)
+bigclivedotcom lol terrifying thought. You wouldn't even need to touch it to be killed, just close enough. :D
+rentacow Yup. And once it had arced across the ionised air would continue to arc across a significant distance as you pulled away.
Standard practice to replace the whole lot if the exploding bit explodes.
Looks like something from PhotonicInduction's lab!
+ONE MAN, ONE MIC, ONE CAMERA He went through a divorce and then was in hospital, but I see his channel was updated a month ago, so hopefully he's ok again.
You should collaborate with Destin at Smarter Every Day and let him use his 20,000 fps camera to film this. ;)
..rock solid hard .. now that's an image
They are porcelain at the sub-station by me. Really heavy
But how often do they actually go bang. ?
+Graham R Dyer - Once.
+9ff70f96 HA!
Graham, they are designed to be hit by lightning once, then the whole thing replaced. However, they also can only last for a decade or so(many outlast their life expectancy, which is how cliff got one) before they must be replaced if they never got hit by lightning.
If the cap goes off, the whole thing is replaced, even if it was a fluke, for 'just in case' reasons, so yes, they only go off once, then the whole thing is replaced.
that little metal disc in the wreckage looked like it might be part of a shotgun primer or something like that
Proud Ohio moment! Ohio/ Brass shop very near where I live. Small world.
Love USA built stuff!
very informative video
Oh wow, I also assumed these things were ceramic. I guess polymers are seeping into all aspects of technology. Pun most assuredly intended :D
The utility company I work for switched from Ceramic to Polymer due to the potential shrapnel that ceramic insulators and bushings blast when they fail catastrophically. Lets just say that customers aren't happy when a ceramic arrester grenades shrapnel into their cars which are parked just under a utility pole.
If you do it again catch it in slow-mode, would be interesting.
11000 volts and you blew it with 240 volts wow i am impressed n thinking of showing how dam scary live power is to my kids
He didn't run amps/volts through the MOV so he wouldn't need as much as he just wanted to explode the disconnector.
Looks "a ok" to go through that black plastic housing, dont go through that inner steel one though.
A Nice little micro grenade charge, zero black exhaust is a good sign from your bucket cam ;)
+bigclivedotcom did your cat get you
+Austin XD I had a run-in with a wild bramble stalk.
bigclivedotcom may I ask what is that?
bigclivedotcom one of the reasons why I love your channel you respond to comments on your videos thank you.
+Austin XD Brambles. A wild fruit with a very spiky stem. Quite an invasive plant with not enough fruitiness to justify its spiky presence.
bigclivedotcom thank you for the definition
Very nice thank you
About 3 weeks ago we had all 3 phases fail out on the pole that fed to a buried cable and 4 transformers, turns out a waste lift station, at the end of the road transformer took a dump.sort of ironic
Thats more like it, make it go bang please big clive. 😂
Should send you one for ham radio coaxial
Get the Go Pro app then you can use your smart phone as a monitor and controller. The SloMo Guys could do a good video job for you. They love things that go bang.
hum i like it :D looks really neet
Things that go boom are interesting until it happens at home
You should be able to cut it open with a pipe cutter/tube cutter. No spark.
+Kris Alutius No spark, no fun.
Ohio Brass, I love that band. :-)
Just a fancy fuse.
Weight before blown up - weight after blown up approx. = charge !
Looks like a rifle cartridge primer cap.
I would like to see you take a car amplifier apart and show how it works
ty very interesting
Awesome xD Thumbs up !!
Alex
It's interesting to witness you putting current thru an explosive device .. it''s what ohm-meters do: shoot a voltage across the test leads, as i know you know ....
What if the device has 'manufacturing defect' ??? Don't you love yur hands??
+Tkj Tkj The device is similar to a standard electric match / detonator. It has a low resistance and requires a high current to trigger it. It would actually be quite complicated to make a device that could be detonated by the test current of a standard multimeter.
oh my god you must never probe an explosive device like that with an ohm meter. it could set it off! Basic safety for automotive seat belt pre tensioners which use a similar device.you really should put a warning up,this is serious.
Good grief man, this device is designed to operate at 11kV and is detonated with a high energy pulse. A high impedance DVM doesn't have enough energy to set it off. Chill out.
Interesting
Lightning arrestor huh... Reminds me of the American police... except ones shit and ones not ;)
NICE!
you made it on hackaday :)
I thought those disks we're metal
Metal insulators? lol