BBB Technologies Ltd is a leading materials laboratory providing both on-site and laboratory validated materials testing, materials analysis, materials inspection and research. We are also leaders in litigation support, provision of expert witness reports.
One continually expanding area is that of forensic electrical engineering. Forensic electrical engineering is one branch of our work whereby we investigate electrical failures and accidents in a legal context. Many of our investigations involve for example, fires or power outages. We are most commonly contacted by manufacturers of control cabinets, electrical switchgear and bus-bar trunking distribution systems, and we are also retained by insurance companies & solicitors representing insurance companies.
Over the years, we have been involved in investigation a wide range of cases involving electrical components and busbar systems. In many of these cases, the root cause of a power outage has often been found to be loose connections, humidity and foreign material within a control cabinet. In these cases,
Our investigations commonly include:
• Visual inspection and photography during which we document onsite the initial condition and identifying obvious signs of damage (e.g., charring, arcing, overheating).
• Sectioning and further dissecting components (such as electrical components, wires etc) to expose internal layers for forensic investigation
• Light microscopy to perform preliminary optical examination and locate sites of interest.
• Scanning electron microscopy for in-depth optical examination.
• Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy for the chemical analysis or polymeric materials such as cable sheathing.
• Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) used to identify and quantify elements in a sample, such as the purity of metals or the composition of damage residues.
