Safety is the top priority for cable and harness manufacturers. Practices are put in place to protect workers from all sorts of hazards. Whether being injured from improper use of tools or materials to being safe around electricity, cable and harness producers want to make sure no one is hurt in any way.
The following ideas can help workers stay safe, especially during testing. Cirris testers are built to keep workers safe, but there are still steps that can be taken to help ensure no one is injured in any way.
Training: Make sure every employee is trained on how to use the equipment and what to do if something should go wrong. Don’t let employees use the equipment until they have been properly trained on how to use it.
Process: Create processes that avoid hazards. You might be tempted to create a shortcut, but if it compromises safety, it isn’t worth it.
Preparation: Keep emergency equipment available in the best possible locations. Make sure people are trained and prepared to respond to emergencies.
Inform: Make sure all employees are alerted to potential hazards. This may mean displaying signs and other visible indicators such as lights.
Limitations: Create boundaries to block people from certain areas—especially high voltage testing areas.
Plan: Keep a plan in place in case something should go wrong. Make sure all employees know about this plan and are prepared to carry out safety procedures.
Maintain: Keep all tools and equipment in proper working order. For example, keeping testers calibrated.
Ideas for Improving High-Voltage Safety
Cirris High-Voltage testers are designed to be as safe as practically possible. Injuries from High-Voltage test equipment are very rare. Even then not every High-Voltage test situation is safe. There are always things you can do to increase the safety and reduce the risk a High-Voltage test might present. This page outlines some ideas you can use to design a safe High-Voltage test environment.
How Risk Varies with Current and Voltage:
For AC Voltages
At 5mA, current is perceptible,
At 10mA person may not be able to let go,
At about 40mA, the shock, if lasting 1 second or longer, may be fatal.
For DC Voltages
At 2mA, current is perceptible,
At 10mA person my not be able to let go.
Voltage in General
Voltages less than 30 Vrms or 42 Vdc are considered safe (except when skin is broken).
Intrinsically Safe Testers
IEC’s “EN61010-1, Safety requirements for electrical equipment for measurement, control and laboratory use, April 1993” sets guidelines for safety. If your tester doesn’t meet these guidelines then you need to implement a process to keep people way from the high voltage during a test:
The total charge you can receive in a shock should not exceed 45 uC.
The total High-Voltage energy should not exceed 350 mJ.
The total current should not exceed 5 mA peak (3.5 mA rms)
The fault current should not stay on longer than 10 mS.
