Switchgears Preventive Maintenance

Vaccum cleaners are available for this purpose. They are having dust bags in which the dust is collected.

use 20 micron filters on your panel air venting systems and just wash off the dust from the filters whenever you do maintenance . . . you can also install a dust collection scrubber in the air circulation system if your atmosphere contains too many particles . . .

you must also conduct some verification of ratio of air volume to equipment volume inside your cubicles . . . the weight and surface area of the equipments and cubicles will also be needed along with the watt losses and durations of use during on periods . . .

if you show us the IGA of the panels it will be good . . .

to help you more we recommend that you collect air samples and test the same to find the particle size, composition and v/v density . . .

once you have the data we will be able to design a foolproof custom solution for you . . .

You are right.

The maintenance contractor should have vacuum cleaner. It's not good to blow the dust to the air.

The small dust particle can be infected other part such as ACB and other in the particular panel.

Yes we can not protect all dust to be collected, but at least we minimize the risk by using vacuum cleaner.

Romeo

don't you have vacuum cleaners on your world?

It's actually a very common problem, "cleaning" is often considered a lowly task left to the people least likely to understand the consequences of their actions. I have done numerous mining equipment electrical containers that need filtered air ventilation and I get frustrated with either a complete LACK of cleaning, or cleaning procedures such as what you describe, which are more akin to "recycling" the dust. I have had moderate success in changing bad habits by simply putting on a sticker that says something like

"Danger! Improper or incomplete cleaning of filters can lead to arc flash events and exposure to extreme electrical danger! Perform regularly scheduled cleaning in another area using a vacuum cleaner ONLY."

It may not be 100% true, but to the people who are often left with the task it might as well be scripture!

It is a very elementary concept in cleaning any electrical system/equipment that it should nevr be cleaned by blowing air. The best method is to use a vacuum cleaner. Even a apprentice electrician would know this.