Arc Flash
- Thread starter nizak
- Start date
I retired from a company that had a large strict safety department so we had to wear long sleeve PPE shirts, PPE pants rated for at least 8 Cal, 600 volt rubber gloves, electrical rated work boots ( fiberglass safety toes & no metal shoe lace eyelets ) and a face shield before opening a120 or 240 volt load center. Even told us to wear cotton T shirts & shocks. They had no trouble purchasing PPE rated hoodies, thin & A heavy work coat but not PPE rated T shirts. On 480 volt panels they wanted us to wear Balaclava head cover along with earn plugs. You should check in with what NFPA 70E for guidance. We had extra pairs of 600 & 20 KV rubber gloves & canvas gloves that went over them so we had protection when we sent gloves out every six months for testing and date stamped.
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Journeyman Electrician
The company I worked for for over 28 years did not follow NFPA70E and did not have any safe work program. We were given an arc blast suit to turn on large disconnect switches and breakers but no one was required to have protection on when opening and working on energized 208 and 480 volt equipment and no one did. Many guys didn't even wear electrical hazard protection rated foot wear.
Sounds like a rich newspaper that I worked at years ago. I asked several times for them to order me a pair if 600 volt rubber gloves. Said they might purchase one pair for five electricians to share. Told them that I'm fixed in my ways in that I do not share safety equipment, toothbrush, razor or underwear with anybody. Somebody in HR must have read a safety article and demanded that we sign a letter stating we can never work on anything while energized. They wanted to know why we were taking so.long troubleshooting equipment. While working in a 65 man maintenance department back in the early 1980's they purchased one all keyed alike padlock for us. I refused to sign for any locks that were keyed alike. Then they purchased just one padlock for each of us that were not keyed alike. Told them electricians in a large plant need at least a dozen padlocks because we might LOTO a breaker or piece of equipment that might be down for weeks. Amazing thing after OSHA came thru finding pages of violations then had a court order to remove the medical records of the 1,000 workers there we finally received much needed padlocks, LOTO cards & breaker locks. OSHA people appeared to get upset when they found a piece of tape on some 480 volt circuit breakers to keep so which from turning them on.