Electrical Arcing and Crockpot Fire

Metallurgical Failure Analysis was requested on a Crockpot that was thought to be the cause of an electrical fire. Electrical arcing was suspected to be the root cause of the fire, and the crockpot was submitted for macroscopic and microscopic examination. An area of alleged electrical wire arcing is shown in Photograph A.

Photograph A: Close-up view of alleged arcing damage.

Testing included macro/microphotgraphy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray mapping, and energy dispersive spectroscopy ( EDS). It was determined that the suspected "arc" beads were actually "melt" beads, and that they were the result of, rather than the cause of, the fire.

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