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Electrical safety checks
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The question of assuring safety of electrical equipment under the current Regulations has been the subject of considerable confusion.

When the Health & Safety Commission conducted a review of all Health & Safety regulations, they stated (§10) "Regulation 4(2) of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 has been particularly prone to misrepresentation. However, the Regulations themselves seem to command widespread support, and HSE's latest guidance has been well received. (recommendation 13) The Commission believes that its new guidance will be effective in reducing the impact of the misrepresentation of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 but proposes to keep this under review."

Regulation 4(2) states "As may be necessary to prevent danger, all systems shall be maintained so as to prevent, so far as reasonably practicable, such danger". It is a feature of all the Regulations made under the Health & Safety at Work Act that they specify only the goals to be achieved, not any particular testing or method to achieve them. The principle is that risk assessments shall be carried out by competent persons and a suitable and sufficient system of work operated so as to minimise the risk of injury.

The Health & Safety Executive has published a booklet "Maintaining portable and transportable electrical equipment" and a leaflet "Maintaining portable electrical equipment in offices and other low-risk environments". The Institution of Electrical Engineers published a comprehensive 'Code of Practice for In-service Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment'. The Association For Service Management International has published a Guidance Note for I.T. and similar equipment in offices based on this Code of Practice.

These publications stress that the method and cost of testing should be in proportion to the assessed risk of injury. Copiers are used only in offices and similar low-risk environments and are not subject to conditions which are likely to result in a risk of electric shock to the user.

Océ's service procedures comply fully with the AFSMI Guidance Note. Furthermore, we have an excellent monitoring system as copiers are returned and reconditioned at the end of their rental period. Inspection and testing of returned machines provides assurance that the condition of machines at customers is satisfactory and that normal usage does not result in danger to users.

On every visit, our field service technicians carry out inspections of the machine itself, the mains lead and plug to ensure that safety has not become impaired and protective earth continuity maintained. In addition, we actively seek to improve the reliability and performance of our machines, and modifications are allocated and fitted where appropriate. Should anything be reported that has an potential impact on safety, we ensure that all similar machines are checked or modified. Records of such actions are maintained in our service computer system. We do not equip our service technicians with so-called PAT test sets for several reasons, among which are that they are inappropriate, not infrequently give erroneous readings on our equipment, and are not cost-effective in our circumstances.

Click here to see the AFSMI Guidance Note.
Note: This will download a document (<30Kb) which is in PDF format. If you do not have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software, click here to access Adobe's website.
 
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