Why it slips
Compliance is not lost at year five. It is lost in year two.
Five years is a ceiling, not a schedule. The analysis has to be reviewed whenever a change alters the result. If your system changed in year two, your study was out of date in year two, and nobody sent a reminder.
The five year date is the one everybody diaries. The changes that actually invalidate a study happen quietly, are made by people who do not know they have moved a compliance obligation, and leave no trace on the label.
What triggers an early update
- Adding or replacing a transformer
- A change in the available fault current from the utility · often without any work on your side
- New switchgear or motor control centres
- Significant load additions
- Altered protective relay or fuse settings · the most common, and the least visible
- Adding distributed generation or battery storage
- Any major reconfiguration of the distribution
Each one changes the fault duty or the clearing time, and therefore changes the number on the label. A relay re-set on a Tuesday afternoon can invalidate a label that still looks perfectly current.
Had any of these on your plant since the last study? Tell us which and we will say whether it resets the clock.
And one detail that catches plants out. The five year clock runs from the completion date on the signed study, not from the day the labels went up. Installation often runs weeks or months behind report issue, so a plant that thinks it has eight months left may have three. Check the report date, then check the date on the label.
Not sure where you are in the cycle? Tell us the date on your existing labels.
The programme
Five stages, on one calendar
VB Arc360 is a single engagement that covers the whole obligation rather than the study alone. Each stage has its own recurrence, and the programme is what keeps them synchronised.
Assess
Photographic walkdown, client verified evidence, modelling and the incident energy analysis.
Label
Labels engineered, printed and installed at the equipment, with boundaries marked on the floor.
Train
Qualified person certification, immersive VR practice and a branded induction video.
Enforce
The annual field work audit obligation, discharged continuously rather than once a year.
Renew
Label currency, retraining cycles and the year five re-study, run from a verified baseline.
Stage 1 · Assess · the input layer is where studies fail
Most brownfield studies fail before a calculation runs. Single line diagrams drift, settings change, cable schedules vanish. Competitors disclaim the as-built data in an assumptions register and proceed anyway, which produces a number that is precise, wrong and believed.
Every nameplate, relay setting and cable schedule is photographed on site and uploaded for your engineers to approve before any model is built. Typical legacy discrepancy of 22 to 40 percent is reduced to under 2 percent before the model is touched. The audit trail is the deliverable.
Stage 4 · Enforce · the clause nobody automates
NFPA 70E requires the employer to audit field work at least annually, to confirm that the programme is actually followed at the panel. Most organisations discharge that with a once-a-year walkaround and a form.
VijAI PPEAI connects to the CCTV already installed in your electrical rooms and verifies arc rated PPE compliance continuously. It reads the rating on the worker’s garment against the incident energy on the panel, alerts the supervisor when they do not match, and logs every event.
That turns an annual sampling exercise into a continuous record. When an auditor asks how field work is verified, the answer is a log rather than a recollection.
Ask how the annual field work audit obligation would be evidenced at your site.
The VB Arc360 brochure
Seven pages you can forward. The five stages, the four written guarantees, what is included rather than quoted as an extra, the VijAI enforcement layer, and the standards an auditor checks against.
Multi-site
Who owns arc flash compliance across several plants
Three models exist, and most operators discover which one they have only after an audit finds a gap.
| Model | What it gives you, and what it costs |
|---|---|
| Centralised | One standard, one vendor, buying power, and consistent labelling across every site. The risk is that site specific conditions get averaged away and urgent local needs wait for a corporate decision. |
| Decentralised | Local teams move fast and know their own equipment. The risk is drift · different interpretations of the same standard, inconsistent labelling, and duplicated spend. |
| Hybrid | Corporate sets the standard and selects the vendor, sites execute against it. Most multi site operators end up here, and it is the model VB Arc360 is built to run. |
Running several plants on different vendors and different dates? We will map them onto one calendar.
In writing
Four written guarantees on every engagement
A programme is a commitment over years, so the commitments are written into the engagement rather than described in a proposal.
01 · Turnaround SLA
Draft report within 15 business days of written approval of the single line diagram. The schedule lives on the project portal where you can see it, and any slippage caused by us is reported by us first.
02 · Free label re-issue
If your team corrects any input data within 30 days of the final report, we recalculate the affected buses and re-issue the labels at no cost. Accuracy is our risk, not yours.
03 · Audit support pledge
When a regulator, insurer or corporate auditor reviews the study, we stand with you. Documentation, methodology defence and engineer time are included, not quoted.
04 · 12-month warranty
Deliverables are warranted for 12 months. Any error or omission attributable to our engineering is corrected free of charge, with affected labels and tables re-issued.
The exposure
What an expired programme actually costs
An arc fault injures a worker during routine switching.
The regulator, your insurer and counsel ask for the hazard assessment.
Outdated labels, unverified data, lapsed training, no audit log.
Citation, penalties, coverage disputes, personal exposure for the responsible manager.
The exposure is not the age of the paper. It is the absence of a current, documented assessment at the moment somebody asks for one. And insurers now ask at renewal, not only after an incident · thermographic inspection has moved from good practice to a condition of coverage in many programmes.
Insurance renewal coming up? We will tell you what your carrier is likely to ask for.
Infrared thermography, on the same visit
Arc flash and infrared thermography are increasingly tendered together, and for good reason: a hot joint is both a reliability problem and an arc flash initiator. We deliver both, which means one mobilisation, one outage window and one record rather than two vendors on different calendars.
Year by year
What the programme does, and when
| Year | What happens |
|---|---|
| Year 0 | Study, labels installed, boundaries marked, qualified persons certified, enforcement live. |
| Year 1 | Field work audit. Lockout and tagout audit. Data and label refresh against any changes. |
| Year 2 | Field work audit. Lockout and tagout audit. Change impact review on anything modified. |
| Year 3 | Programme audit against the standard. Qualified person retraining cycle. Both documented. |
| Year 4 | Field work audit. Lockout and tagout audit. Pre-review of the model ahead of year five. |
| Year 5 | Incident energy review. Re-study from a verified baseline rather than a fresh survey, because the data, labels and training records are already held. |
The year five re-study is the reason the programme is cheaper than a series of one-off studies. It starts from a maintained record, not from a blank walkdown.
Due for a re-study? A renewal from a maintained baseline is a different scope to a first study.
Want the calendar mapped against your actual study date and label revisions?
Where the programme connects to the wider practice
Arc flash study services
The study itself · scope, cost and how to compare vendors.
Arc flash safety AMC
The recurring maintenance contract that sits under the programme.
Protective device coordination
Clearing times decide incident energy. Where a result is actually improved.
Infrared thermography
The annual inspection insurers increasingly require, delivered on the same visit.
The arc flash report
What the deliverable contains, section by section.
VB Arc360 · the programme
The five stages described in full, across every country we operate in.
Questions plants ask about the programme
How often must employers audit their electrical safety program?
NFPA 70E sets three separate audit intervals. The electrical safety program is audited against the standard at intervals no greater than three years. Field work is audited at least annually. The lockout and tagout program is audited at least annually by a qualified person. Every audit must be documented. VB Arc360 runs all three on one calendar.
When should an arc flash study be updated?
The incident energy analysis is reviewed for accuracy at intervals not exceeding five years, and sooner on any change that alters the result. Five years is a ceiling, not a schedule. If your system changed in year two, your study was out of date in year two. VB Arc360 tracks the triggers, not just the calendar.
When does the five year clock actually start?
From the completion date on the signed and stamped study, not from the day labels were installed. Plants routinely get this wrong by months, because installation often runs weeks or longer behind report issue. Check the date on the report, then check the date printed on the label. VB Arc360 records both.
What happens if our arc flash study has expired?
An expired study is a documented gap. Workers are performing energised work against labels built on stale data, which is difficult to defend in an incident investigation, at an insurance renewal or in front of an inspector. The exposure is the absence of a current assessment, not the age of the paper.
What is an arc flash program, and how is it different from a study?
A study is a project that ends when the report is signed. A program is the recurring obligation that follows it: labels kept current, qualified persons retrained, field work audited annually, the program itself audited every three years, and the study reviewed at five. VB Arc360 is that program, run as one engagement.
Do all arc flash labels have to be replaced when the study is updated?
No. Where the recalculated incident energy is unchanged, the existing label remains valid. Every label should still be inspected for legibility, adhesion and conformity with the current labelling requirement. VB Arc360 re-issues only what changed and inspects the rest, which is why a renewal costs less than a first study.
What triggers an early arc flash study update?
Adding or replacing a transformer, a change in available utility fault current, new switchgear or motor control centres, significant load additions, altered protective relay or fuse settings, adding distributed generation or battery storage, and any major reconfiguration. Each one changes the fault duty or the clearing time, and therefore the label.
How do we track arc flash status across every asset?
Per equipment item, not per site. Each bus carries its own study date, incident energy, label revision, and the review date that follows from it. VB Arc360 holds that record so the next renewal starts from a verified baseline rather than a fresh survey, and so any panel can be checked in seconds.
Is infrared thermography required annually?
Thermographic inspection is treated as an annual activity in current maintenance practice, and many insurers now require it as a condition of coverage rather than as good practice. VB Engineering delivers infrared thermography alongside the arc flash program, which is how most tenders ask for it.
Who owns arc flash compliance across multiple sites?
Three models exist. Centralised gives one standard and buying power but can miss site nuance. Decentralised is fast locally but drifts between sites. Hybrid, with corporate setting the standard and sites executing, is what most multi site operators settle on. VB Arc360 is built to run either way.
