Here at Westwire Electrics we provide second to none services and products required for excellent electric system installations.

Here is a list of the 5 most common safety mistakes in electrical maintenance, which can lead to a very serious accident:

1. Underestimating the danger of lower voltage levels

You often hear a lot: “it’s only 120 volts (or 208 or 480)”, but we must not forget that the only difference between high and low voltage is how fast the discharge could kill us.

A high voltage discharge kills instantly; the low voltage takes a little longer. A 120-volt shock, for example, can cause death for up to 48 hours after initial exposure. We must always take appropriate safety precautions.

2. Not wearing protective gear during troubleshooting

Many people, understandably, don’t like wearing rubber insulating gloves or personal protective equipment (PPE), especially during troubleshooting.

PPE can be hot, uncomfortable, and restrictive, not to mention slowing down the work process, but the reality is that component failure could occur at any time, so it’s best to be protected.

Whether from carbon buildup or eroded contact material, good switches can suddenly fail during troubleshooting.

Wearing personal protective equipment when opening a fuse box or taking a quick measurement can mean the difference between injury and safety. One of the most common safety mistakes in electrical maintenance and one that can easily be avoided.

3. Using outdated or faulty equipment

Whether the cables are frayed or the readings look odd, it might be time to replace your outdated tools. Signs to get rid of old equipment include:

• Illegible front plate.
• You cannot get the same measure from one trial to the next.
• Loose or cracked cables.
• It does not qualify as safe for the work environment

4. Not giving the required maintenance to the electrical installations’ equipment

Companies sometimes view maintenance as an overhead and choose not to regularly inspect electrical distribution equipment.

Although it is difficult to quantify the savings from preventative maintenance, the net costs associated with broken equipment include:

• Indefinite downtime.
• Lost of production.
• Extra work time.
• Risks to the health and safety of employees.
• Without a doubt, one of the most common safety mistakes in electrical maintenance.

5. Negligence during the inspection of test instruments

Before starting the no-power test, the test instrument should be inspected to ensure that it is working properly. The inspection should include the following questions:

• Does it have obvious defects?
• Does the switch operate smoothly?
• Does the instrument have the appropriate CAT classification for that particular environment and equipment?
• Is the screen working properly?

What is the best way to maintain an electrical system?

A power grid is the lifeblood that drives business operations. Network operators and plant managers face a dual problem: maintaining their networks to ensure power continues when circumstances such as budget cuts, problematic environments, and security concerns arise.

Cost reduction often leads to a reduction in maintenance team resources and a maintenance plan approach to the corrective type, increasing the risk of unscheduled shutdowns, which turn into cost increases for production stoppages and equipment repair. This being a risky maintenance plan.

In fact, the main cause of electrical system failures is lack of maintenance. All electrical equipment requires regular maintenance to optimize operations, avoid breakdowns, and ensure continuity of service and safety.

To further complicate matters, the design of many existing electrical infrastructures simply cannot support the ever-increasing workload demands. Add to that faulty components and the use of heavy equipment, and your maintenance schedule – or lack thereof – can hamper electrical system performance and life.

The question is not if a failure will occur, but when. The failure rate of electrical equipment is three times higher for components that are not covered by a scheduled maintenance plan, compared to equipment that are.

In developing an effective maintenance program, we must take into account the risks and advantages of the different types of maintenance that are available to us:

Corrective maintenance (on demand):

• It is characterized by waiting for the failure of a component or system.
• It is based on repairing a computer without considering the causes.
• It does not constitute a service plan, so there is no commitment by the service provider to prioritize this intervention.
• It should only be considered in equipment that is not critical and of little value, without impact on operations or compromising safety
• Maintenance costs can be low, but the risk of significant business losses is high.

Preventive Maintenance:

• Based on time and equipment use without waiting for them to fail.
• It is characterized by avoiding unscheduled stops.
• It involves the proactive replacement of components for use (even if it is not necessary).
• Increases the life of equipment and maintains safety standards.
• The scope can range from basic to exclusive depending on the criticality and periodicity of maintenance.
• Since this maintenance lengthens the life of the equipment, minimizes the risk of unscheduled shutdowns and breakdowns, and ends up assuming a lower cost than corrective maintenance.

Condition-based maintenance:

• Based on diagnostics that compare the current state with the original state of the equipment by conducting factory tests that are replicated at the customer’s facility.
• It measures origin deviations that allow anomalies to emerge that are not visible in preventive maintenance.
• You can find the causes that produce mechanical or electrical deviations that lead to premature aging.
• Avoid replacing components that are in good condition during preventive maintenance.

Predictive Maintenance:

• Based on the information that the equipment itself collects through sensors.
• The information is digitized and sent to a system that processes it using algorithms to know the status of the equipment and anticipate risk situations.
• It is normally associated with a team of technical experts who monitor the data and identify potential risks so that the client only has to worry about the application of the recommendations.
• The objective is to give the alert message to the team in charge of the installation and the options they have at their disposal to evaluate and carry them out in advance of a potential failure.

At Westwire Electrics Pty Ltd you will find state of the art products installed by dedicated crews that have done this hundreds of times before