There is a requirement in law for employers to ensure the safety of employees at all times and the only way to protect against electrocution is to regularly undertake portable appliance and installation testing.
In fact, more people get injured from faulty appliances than from faults occurring from the installation itself.
PAT testing is a time consuming and repetitive task which consists of uniquely identifying appliances, testing, documenting results, taking any remedial actions and marking the appliance with the next test due date. The Fluke 6500 PAT tester is designed specifically to facilitate this process.
Most appliances are either of Class I or Class II construction, with each class having different testing requirements. Class I equipment utilises basic insulation of electrical parts and provides a means of connecting any metal parts that could become live, should the basic insulation fail, to the main protective earth of the building. The flexible mains cable of such equipment consists of three wires: a live, neutral and earth conductor. PAT testing of Class I appliances confirms the integrity of this protective earth connection and that it is of low enough resistance to ensure the removal of any dangerous voltages. It also confirms the quality of the basic insulation to ensure that it is higher than minimum levels.
Class II equipment does not rely on the protective earth of the installation but provides double or reinforced insulation to the user. They are usually supplied with a mains cable that consists of two conductors, a live and a neutral. However, some manufacturers supply cables with three conductors, so the number of conductors is not a means to identify the class of equipment. PAT testing measures the quality of the double insulation to ensure that it meets minimum standards.
The Fluke 6500 is an automated tester that incorporates automatic test sequences and a memory with the ability to include descriptive text for fast documentation. It has a sophisticated memory system with several factory set auto-test routines for Class I and Class II appliances, as well as allowing the user to program their own. Auto-testing can be a better option for semi-skilled operators as it provides screen prompts.
The tester also provides a comprehensive capability for portable appliance testing data capture. It has a large graphical display and allows the user to save test results, as well as pre-programmed pass fail limits. It has a compact Flash card memory facility that can be used as a memory backup and to enable test data to be returned to the office while the tester remains in the field.
For more information contact Comtest, +27 (0)11 254 2200, [email protected], www.comtest.co.za
| Tel: | +27 10 595 1821 |
| Email: | [email protected] |
| www: | www.comtest.co.za |
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