Looking to clean up steel housing from previously arc flash. The carbon staining seems quite hard to remove. Looking for suggestions from you knowledgeable folks.

Thank you.

Sandblast and repaint. Or leave it there as a reminder for others.

I always felt it was best to try to clean it up a bit, or at the very least do something to indicate it has been "seen by others in the past and is not new". We have more then a few customers whose equipment has flashed over often. Its better to open the equipment panel and know the damage is from a previous incident when your trying to troubleshoot the situation. Many times MV insulators flash over and cause major damage to the insulator and minor damage to the cabinet. After replacing the insulators I just circle the arc damage and put a date on it if there is no time to clean it up. IMHO it helps the next guy who is out there in the middle of the night in the rain looking for why the 15kV fuses blew.

At my work they used a Dry ice sandblast. I dident see it but apparentley the Dry ice disolves and all the contanments end up on the botom of the cabnet and is then wiped out. The end result looks good

[font="Comic Sans MS"][SIZE="3"]I've had good luck with a product called WypAll it is a waterless "hand wipe" which is made by Kimberly-Clark. Then after you use the wipe you let it dry then hit the flashing with some paint. Something else you may try is WD-40 it is amazing what you can do with it. Just spray it on a shop rag and wipe![/size][/font]

One thing I’ve seen work on arc-flashed steel housings is using a non-abrasive industrial degreaser first, then following up with a melamine pad or very fine polishing compound before deciding on blasting. A lot depends on how deep the carbonization went into the finish. If the metal surface is still structurally sound, you can sometimes improve the appearance quite a bit without stripping everything down.

I’d still mark or document the affected area afterward like the second reply mentioned. In industrial facilities, that history can save someone a lot of confusion during future troubleshooting. We had a maintenance contractor use methods similar to the ones shared by RMS Cleaning on heavily stained electrical enclosures after smoke and flash residue exposure, and the biggest takeaway was to avoid overly aggressive cleaning that could damage labels, coatings, or inspection markings. Sometimes “clean enough to inspect safely� is the better goal instead of making it look brand new again.