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Is there any sensor that can detect melting of electrical wires

manojroy123

Is there any sensor that can detect melting of electrical wires. The smell of melting electrical wire is disgusting.

  • manojroy123 said:
    Is there any sensor that can detect melting of electrical wires

    There are options. Consider the following that would be associated with this happening:

    - Temperature increase

    - Resistance change

    - Particulate matter in the air

    Also consider:

    - What is happening to create this scenario in the first place?

    - Can the issue be prevented with proper requirements analysis and parts used?

    - What actions do you want to happen when it's detected?

    The recommended solution is determined by what level of voltage and current you're working with.

    If we're talking about working with a microcontroller, and voltages between 1.8v and 20v - then maybe you should be looking at using appropriate wiring before putting in a solution that "detects melted wires". Education and prevention is better than detection.

    If we're talking about reacting to a badly designed graphics card, then yeah, maybe you want to do voltage and current sensing and put some 'smarts' on there:

    But if you're talking about 100v+ and mains equipment, well you should definitely be measuring more on prevention, cut off, and appropriate reaction and following electrical standards.

    With a little bit of what robogary says, like a smoke detector.

  • in reply to cstanton

    Nice reply, the question itself was pretty vague and generic.

    There are several things for prevention that you mentioned. 

    Motors and their wires need overload and stalled motor protection. Transformers and their wires need overload and ioc protection.

    In some places ground fault detection may be needed.

    To manojroy123: regular maintenance is also important in a factory. Electrical connections need checked for tightness , check for signs of overheating either with a thermal gun or visual check, conductive lubrication on aluminum wires, sharp edges or wires touching metal boxes can chafe and short to ground.

    Ventilation / air flow maintained around electrical enclosure fans and heat sinks. 

    Avoid issues that cause wires to melt with circuit protection...

    ......And then a generous distribution of cameras and smoke detectors around the equipment. 

  • Suggest a Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) gas sensors tuned for TVOCs. 

    Sensirion SGP40 / SGP41 is a good bet. Otherwise, Bosch BME680. No doubt, other cheaper analog MOS sensors could be used too.

  • maybe. practicly, while running, Im not sure. 
    is that live melting or detecting damage?
    in 1 wire? all the wires?
    Megger, and high-pot testers come to mind. 
    principally, melted wires have lower insinuative properties. 
    but running those tests on a live system would be illadvised. 

  • typically, you'd spec your wires to ampacity, and adjust insulation for ampactity, load, service factor, and ambient conditions. 
    ampactity is how much current your wire can cary, determined by cross section
    insulation type selection depends on environment, and these other factors.
    service factor: a padding in the calculation depending on load type, and run time, which contribute to conductor heating.
    ambient contitiosn are how how it is in the area

  • The smell means the electrical wire is either seriously under-rated for the load or there is a serious short somewhere. Ideally, You should have a safety element such as Fuse or MCB etc which will ensure that if current goes beyond the capacity of the wires, then current is tripped off. That way we will have a known failure point. Now, specifically answering your question no. There is no sensor that that detect melting of electrical wires for regular home/industrial applications. The best alternative is VOC and AQI or Smoke sensor which can detect the smell. But again, wires can slowly melt without releasing enough gas for the AQI sensors to detect.