Low Voltage Live Testing Training

Thank you everyone for your help so far. It has given me a bit more direction for what I may need.

 

I think I may have been asking the wrong question then. I am up to speed on the relevant regulations, and trust me I have made huge improvements to the way things have been done in the past, but I am just a technician. I am not anything to do with our policy writing, procedure writing, or health and safety. All I can do is point out issues and try and make recommendations for improvements. But it is getting people trained to a standard that I am struggling with. If I can’t find the correct training, then there will be no training according to my manager, who I am struggling to get on side with this.


The times where it is often unreasonable is when manufacturing a £10,000 washing machine (for example only, I genuinely can’t say what we do make that needs 110V) and the PCB with the 110V AC to 12V DC converter is not working. We only build enough PCBs for the job which may be as little as 2 as we can’t afford to keep £500 boards in stock. The board needs repaired as a new one may take 16 weeks for all the parts to populate it to come in. If we wait 16 weeks the customer who ordered their £10,000 ‘washing machine’ has to wait 16 weeks, and they are not likely to return for another repeat order along with other products worth £100,000’s. It is at this point where we have in the past needed to test the voltages around a PCB which would have been live testing. But up to a few years ago ignorance was bliss and no one was aware of the regulations.


My main problem is getting technicians who work with 5V, 12V and 24V DC day to day on our standard products (underwater cameras), safely working with dangerous voltages. I need them to be able to see the dangers and be aware of what they should be doing to protect themselves. If it is making what would be a live test into a safe test with barriers to IP2X so be it. But I still need to find training for them to understand this. If I just give them a copy of the regulations or spout them off to them they are either not going to listen or understand. The second biggest problem is then making sure they are competent to work with electricity which may be harder. We have had new technicians come in who are not up to speed on electricity, let alone working with it safely.


I suppose the two points on training now are:

1. Are there any training courses out there that covers making electrical goods or systems safe before testing that someone can recommend? If it covers what must all be done to be practically safe as covered in all the HSE guidelines, all the better.

• As a lot of the HSE guidelines and IET wiring regulations talk about the person working on a job being electrically competent, what training is recommended to achieve this? Bearing in mind that the level needed is not that of an electrician, so the usual courses they do would not suit in this case.

 

Still any advice on this, or am I still looking at this wrong?

Thank you everyone for your help so far. It has given me a bit more direction for what I may need.

 

I think I may have been asking the wrong question then. I am up to speed on the relevant regulations, and trust me I have made huge improvements to the way things have been done in the past, but I am just a technician. I am not anything to do with our policy writing, procedure writing, or health and safety. All I can do is point out issues and try and make recommendations for improvements. But it is getting people trained to a standard that I am struggling with. If I can’t find the correct training, then there will be no training according to my manager, who I am struggling to get on side with this.


The times where it is often unreasonable is when manufacturing a £10,000 washing machine (for example only, I genuinely can’t say what we do make that needs 110V) and the PCB with the 110V AC to 12V DC converter is not working. We only build enough PCBs for the job which may be as little as 2 as we can’t afford to keep £500 boards in stock. The board needs repaired as a new one may take 16 weeks for all the parts to populate it to come in. If we wait 16 weeks the customer who ordered their £10,000 ‘washing machine’ has to wait 16 weeks, and they are not likely to return for another repeat order along with other products worth £100,000’s. It is at this point where we have in the past needed to test the voltages around a PCB which would have been live testing. But up to a few years ago ignorance was bliss and no one was aware of the regulations.


My main problem is getting technicians who work with 5V, 12V and 24V DC day to day on our standard products (underwater cameras), safely working with dangerous voltages. I need them to be able to see the dangers and be aware of what they should be doing to protect themselves. If it is making what would be a live test into a safe test with barriers to IP2X so be it. But I still need to find training for them to understand this. If I just give them a copy of the regulations or spout them off to them they are either not going to listen or understand. The second biggest problem is then making sure they are competent to work with electricity which may be harder. We have had new technicians come in who are not up to speed on electricity, let alone working with it safely.


I suppose the two points on training now are:

1. Are there any training courses out there that covers making electrical goods or systems safe before testing that someone can recommend? If it covers what must all be done to be practically safe as covered in all the HSE guidelines, all the better.

• As a lot of the HSE guidelines and IET wiring regulations talk about the person working on a job being electrically competent, what training is recommended to achieve this? Bearing in mind that the level needed is not that of an electrician, so the usual courses they do would not suit in this case.

 

Still any advice on this, or am I still looking at this wrong?