diakonos1984
Member
I have a customer for whom we have performed an arc flash study, and are in the process of providing Qualified Training. This customer manufacturers "units" which have electrical parts on them. As part of quality control, the "units" have power (up to 575 VAC) applied to them and various quality checks are performed with a meter. The power supplies are computer controlled, and there is no lockout point for the quality assurance tester while he is hooking up the pigtail to the "unit". The contactors are intirely controlled by software. The company puts over 100 of these "units" through testing each day.
How does the NFPA-70E govern this situation? It's not maintenance, but rather production level testing. It seems reasonable to me that the testers should use voltage protection, and arc flash protection (which the study indicates is Category 0, so no big deal), but I think they will balk at energized work permits and requiring lockout of the power supplies during hookup and disconnect. How have other companies applied the standard to production testing environments?
How does the NFPA-70E govern this situation? It's not maintenance, but rather production level testing. It seems reasonable to me that the testers should use voltage protection, and arc flash protection (which the study indicates is Category 0, so no big deal), but I think they will balk at energized work permits and requiring lockout of the power supplies during hookup and disconnect. How have other companies applied the standard to production testing environments?