Swapping PAT Tested Cables and Equipment

If it's any help, when my employer PAT tests any equipment with detachable cables, they put stickers on both the cable and the equipment.  Then us engineers can mix and match appliances and cables to our hearts' content until the next PAT testing session.

The whole point of standard removable cables is that they are interchangeable. The alternative is a fixed lead.

We do have 2 groups of IEC leads, as some are fitted with 13 and others with 5A fuses and are marked up accordingly - but we have a building full of engineering types.

Note that there is no legal compulsion to PAT at all, but only to have a system that ensures safety - a PAT regime is only one way to do this.

This peculiarity may have more to do with insurance or contractual arrangements, than engineering sense.

Mike.

You could always take the converse approach and say that there is no requirement stated in the 5th edition CoP document for leadsets and equipment to be tested and kept together (because there isn't).

Your method sounds highly impractical - how are leads and device combinations managed, tracked and recorded?  Seems a logistical nightmare to me and I can't really see a strong justification for it in electrical engineering or safety terms.  The only possible reason would be ensuring fuse values are correct as Mike hints in his reply, but practically it make little difference as most internal power supplies are protected by their own fuses and do not rely on the plugtop fuse.  The fuse is mostly there to protect the cable and against any significant L-E fault in the appliance.  If the cable is separately tested including verification of the fuse rating for the cable size, then all should be good.

Jason.

I would say its the decision of

1. the company's H&S procedures (Risk assessmet)

2. the responsible person

3. the insurance company to indemnify the associated risk

However,

Various colleges I'm aware of used to PAT and label all the leads separately.