I went to a photolab yesterday and spoke at great length to the owner. He told me about a problem he's having with one of his R1.2mil procesing machines that is turning into long drawn out saga. The machine is insured and is being repaired by qualified technicians and nobody can fault their service.

Anyhow, this is what happened; the machine was running and the maid was doing her daily vacuuming rounds. The vacuum cleaner power cord was suffed and the live line touched the metal body of the machine....the machine got fried.

Ok, so my questions are as follows;
1. Shouldn't eatch leakage have protected the machine or was the transfer of current so large and fast that bythe time the earth leak breaker responed it was too late.
2. Why would touching the bodyof the machine fry the electronics, provided of course that the body of the machine has no electrical contact with the machine other than being earthed?