" CLEARANCES "

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Davebones

Senior Member
Location
North Of Tampa Fl
Have old equipment moving up here from another plant . Two pieces of equipment have controller cabinets facing each other . Both are in clear violation of OHSA and NEC rules concerning clearances . My boss says don't worry about it . Hook it up . I let him know this is a clear violation . Do I still hook it up ?
 
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petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
Davebones said:
Have old equipment moving up here from another plant . Two pieces of equipment have controller cabinets facing each other . Both are in clear violation of OHSA and NEC rules concerning clearances . My boss says don't worry about it . Hook it up . I let him know this is a clear violation . Do I still hook it up ?
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he has obviously determined they will not need to be worked on energized.
 
mgookin

mgookin

Senior Member
Location
Fort Myers, FL
Davebones said:
Have old equipment moving up here from another plant . Two pieces of equipment have controller cabinets facing each other . Both are in clear violation of OHSA and NEC rules concerning clearances . My boss says don't worry about it . Hook it up . I let him know this is a clear violation . Do I still hook it up ?
Click to expand...

Can you clarify what you mean by "equipment". I'm not asking you to be so specific that you identify the company, but whether it's electrical equipment like distribution panels, or equipment like machinery.

As a general principle, when codes change, everything existing is vested. That doesn't mean you can take a panel that had 2' clear space and install it somewhere else with 2' clear space. But as for a built machine, you don't have to rebuild it every code cycle, as a general principle, and moving it likewise will not compel rebuilding it.
 
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Davebones

Senior Member
Location
North Of Tampa Fl
This is production equipment .Ones a wash system about 8' x 8' it's actually fairly new . The other's de burrs small parts and is kind old . They had it set up this way . You actually have to get on one piece of equipment to get into the others controller cabinet .One cabinet about 3' x 5' and the others 3'x3' .There's fuses , relays , contactors and such in there . Already had few words about why we can't do this with the boss . I say we need to deal with this now not later . One thing I 've learned equipment get put in that's not right and left that way ...
 
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GoldDigger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Placerville, CA, USA
Occupation
Retired PV System Designer
mgookin said:
Can you clarify what you mean by "equipment". I'm not asking you to be so specific that you identify the company, but whether it's electrical equipment like distribution panels, or equipment like machinery.

As a general principle, when codes change, everything existing is vested. That doesn't mean you can take a panel that had 2' clear space and install it somewhere else with 2' clear space. But as for a built machine, you don't have to rebuild it every code cycle, as a general principle, and moving it likewise will not compel rebuilding it.
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You do not have to rebuild a machine which is grandfathered, even when you move it. You may or may not have to re-locate two pieces of machinery which were installed in violation of each others clearances when the code changes, but when you do relocate them, I agree that you do not have the grandfathering to allow you to do the same thing again.
If you have two machines mounted on a single skid and move the skid, it becomes a gray area.
 
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