HI
What bonding, if any, is required to metal benches / tables in a commercial kitchen...
From a strictly electrical point of view, I agree that bonding is most unlikely to be needed, and neither is earthing required unless the table includes built in electrical equipment. And if such equipment IS built in, then then the table is arguably part of a class one appliance.
This does not however tell the whole story. Earthing or bonding of metal tables is often required in publicly funded facilities. It may serve no electrical purpose, but if the elfansafety requires it, then so be it. "you cant have too much safety" The need for such bonding or earthing is now an established part of elfansafety folklore.
And inspecting for a bit of green and yellow wire is a nice easy tick.
A bit like 2 meters between phases, or only blue "safety" cable to be used outdoors, or only extension leads with "safety" fuses to be used, or self contained emergency lights tp be wired in MICC.
But the bonding of large stainless steel tables and other large objects in a wet floored steamy kitchen may actually distribute dangerous fault Voltages around the "joint." (Excuse the pun). I consider it best to leave steel furniture just floating and not connected to the installation wiring in any way. But, by ek we did used to bond everything in the past. The bonding cables often used to come loose and disconnected after much bashing in the commercial kitchen so served no purpose anyway. And the earth labels used to cut kitchen staff's hands when they were stowing away kitchen equipment on low shelves.
Z.
An easy one, none.
Well, in accordance with BS 7671, yes ... but ... if the table is part of Machinery as defined in the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations, then the relevant standard, BS EN 60204-1, would require connection to the electrical bonding system of the machine ... BUT that could be effected by physically bolting the table to another part of the machine (although there are conditions when that alone is not adequate).
Are you saying free standing tables and cupboards in a commercial kitchen without any electrical connections are covered by the machinery directive?
No, but that wasn't the original question ... the original question didn't say 'free standing'
Machinery may include benches/tables used to feed product into (or out of) the machinery, and those may be designed into the machinery for various reasons.
With it being a commercial kitchen, I didn't want to discount that option - I agree not "furniture" or a standard "work surface", but could be there all the same.
This sounds like standards "feature creep" of the worst type AGAIN Graham. Definitions not fit for purpose! Earthing of kitchen tables is the worst DANGEROUS idea ever. It makes a kitchen effectively a "conductive location" so a problem with a cable or handheld appliance immediately extremely dangerous. It also prevents proper cleaning because all items should be easily movable which electrical bonding of the common type is not. Why normal Earthing of the type JP mention is suddenly not adequate is beyond me, this kind of supplementary bonding does nothing for safety except to groups of deluded idiots, often called H&S freaks!
I agree that earthing of kitchen tables is pointless and could even add to risks.
That however counts for nothing if the elfansafety require it. These people are not generally engineers and need some simple rules to follow.
"green and yellow wire to each table============tick.
Blue cable used outdoors====================tick.
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