I was going through the Factories (Electricity) Regulations of Zambia. Regulation number 8 has two parts;
(1) Every switch intended to be used for breaking a circuit and every circuit breaker and each pole of a double-pole or multi-pole switches or circuit-breakers shall be so constructed that it cannot with proper care be left in partial contact.
(2) Every switch intended to be used for breaking a circuit and every circuit breaker shall so be so constructed that an arc cannot be accidentally maintained.

So what is partial contact and how is it different form arcing? Can we call two separate contacts with different potentials having an arc maintained between them in partial contact? Why is a single pole switch not mentioned in (1)?

 

Feedback and Suggestions Forum for providing feedback and suggestions about All About Circuits, including corrections to the e-book. This forum is not for getting help with technical questions.

This was neither feedback nor a suggestion, so I have moved it to a more appropriate forum.

 

I understand what they are driving at just hope I can shed some light on it.

(1) Every switch intended to be used for breaking a circuit and every circuit breaker and each pole of a double-pole or multi-pole switches or circuit-breakers shall be so constructed that it cannot with proper care be left in partial contact.
partial connections can become resistive and eventually burn up as it can't carry the same current as a fully mated connection.

(2) Every switch intended to be used for breaking a circuit and every circuit breaker shall so be so constructed that an arc cannot be accidentally maintained.
As far as arcing they do not want electricity jumping across the open contacts this can be controlled by contact spacing and/or insulating between contacts.

 

I was going through the Factories (Electricity) Regulations of Zambia. Regulation number 8 has two parts;
(1) Every switch intended to be used for breaking a circuit and every circuit breaker and each pole of a double-pole or multi-pole switches or circuit-breakers shall be so constructed that it cannot with proper care be left in partial contact.
(2) Every switch intended to be used for breaking a circuit and every circuit breaker shall so be so constructed that an arc cannot be accidentally maintained.

So what is partial contact and how is it different form arcing? Can we call two separate contacts with different potentials having an arc maintained between them in partial contact? Why is a single pole switch not mentioned in (1)?

I'm not from Zambia so don't take this on any authority but the way I read your statements, the partial contact is when, on a multi pole device, one or more poles fail to open when the others do. The maintained arc is pretty well self explanatory.