Launching a seismic breaker modeling project

Kawasaki City Government and Sumitomo Corporation have signed an agreement to launch a modeling project for seismoscopic residual-current breakers (RCBs), or, simply put, “seismic breakers,” with the aim of promoting the introduction and common use of the device. In the project, the device will be provided free of charge to participating households in and around Oda 2- and 3-chome of Kawasaki-ku and Saiwaicho 3-chome of Saiwai-ku. These districts have been designated as high-density urban areas with high fire hazard severity under the national government assessment.

1. Objective

   The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and Great East Japan Earthquake triggered extensive fire disasters, and a reported 60% of these were associated with electrical appliances. Seismic breakers have been developed to detect an earthquake (intensity 5 upper and above for the selected model) and automatically shut off residual current, thereby reducing the risk of fire.
   The modeling project will be launched to introduce and facilitate familiarization with the tool, targeting the government-designated priority areas, where, for a similar purpose, other measures are planned to increase use of fireproof building materials in high-density districts.

2. Details

   Sumitomo Corporation will provide a simple-type seismic breaker free of charge to each participating household in the target districts, and will conduct a user survey for the project.

   (1)	Target districts and participating households

   	①	Oda 2- and 3-chome of Kawasaki-ku and surrounding areas 50 households from the Oda Chuo Town Society 50 households from the Oda 3-chome Town Society
   	②	Saiwaicho 3-chome of Saiwai-ku and surrounding areas 100 households from the Saiwaicho 3-chome Town Society

   (2)	Launch schedule
   	The provision of the device will be started in mid January 2017

   (3)	Provided device Product Name: Pioma Seismic Circuit Breaker (simple type) (manufactured by Ubukata Industries Co., Ltd.)

   Features:

   Accurately detects earthquake tremors of intensity 5 upper and above and gives an alert with light and sound. Three minutes after detecting a tremor, the main circuit or the ground-fault circuit is automatically shut off to cut the electricity supply for the entire house. No electrical work is required for installation.

The seismic circuit breaker when installed