Working on 240V appliances in work

[WayneH]

Hi All,

I was wondering if any of you could help. I run a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Surrey. We are an extremely small team working odd hours in order to supply a radioisotope directly to the hospital's. We run a very time compressed(almost military style) production shift, where the slightest issue can have big consequences for the customer. I make an imaging agent for Cancer diagnosis, so the people I deal with are quite ill and any delays could have drastic consequences.

So on to the question for your guys, We have a lot of 240V equipment (pumps, motors, plugs etc) which can fail from time to time. When this happens I find myself a dilema.

A few times we've had 240v vacuum pumps fail. These are pumps that control the particle monitoring of the Sterile enviroments we use on a daily basis. All of this happens at about 02:00.
My issue is that I have only 2-3 technicians on site at the time, 1 of them is perfectly capable of changing a plug and therefore would be perfectly confident in wiring in a new pump into the connector block inside the electrical box. I do have a site engiineer with all the relevant qualifications for any mains work who inspects the works afterwards, but I don't know where I stand legally.

So I have a couple of questions:

1. Can my Techicians do this legally?, or am I on route to getting sued?
2. I see a 5 day Part P course for domestic installations, but are there any non-specific basic training courses out there to cover basic electrical safety (Circuits/multimeters/ safety etc)?

Thanks in advance
Wayne Houston at IBA Molecular UK

 

[telectrix]

Re: Working on 240V applicances in work

IMO, the whole issue is about competence. electrical qualifications go some way to proving competence in a court of law, but at the end of the day, being abloe to answer questions in an exam does not give the practical experience required to be competent. if you follow the electricity at work regulations, make sure your technician/s know how to safely isolate and safely carry out the work, then, IMO, you are complying with legislation.

 

[Silly Sausage]

Re: Working on 240V applicances in work

Any electrical tech who has been through a few years of college should be more than capable of doing this particular job.
Forget these short course DI jobs.

If this pump is failing on a regular basis, I'd be asking why?

Have you thought about adding a 2nd pump which could be switched into service on failure of the 1st?

 

[telectrix]

Re: Working on 240V applicances in work

horses for courses, but who wants to be a horse?

 

[WayneH]

Re: Working on 240V applicances in work

Thanks for your replies - The pumps run continually. They had been in service for the last 5years with no issues, but recently we have had 3 units fail within 2-3months of each other. They have now all been changed (by my engineer). My query was more a general question regarding the legal side of things. It would be really nice to be able send my staff of on courses for personal development etc I do not want to throw money away from the business where I dont need to. We are an extremely lean business with almost non-existent margins as the NHS do not have any money to spend...

 

[grantr37]

MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) this is where planned maintenance should come in to change out what I call consumables (continuous service pumps etc) before they get to the wear and tare point that they fail at.....the manufacturers data sheets will tell you this 99% of the time....
are there any special requirements for handling the materials that these pumps transfer, as if there are then the pumps can only be changed by a specialist firm of engineers that trade in/consult in the type of manufacturing environment that you operate within, and also transport and dispose of them legally and safely under their special licences that they have....
you don't want a malfunctioning pump squirting something nasty into someones eyes.....





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