Health and safety are two important elements of every workplace. A secure workplace ensures the safety of the employees and provides a comfortable environment to work.
Providing the best training to your employees is not enough to ensure workplace safety. The equipment and tools are also a major part of a workplace. A minor malfunction in the heavy equipment can cause serious damages and risk the lives of your employees.
Testing and tagging are one of effective methods to ensure the safety of your electric equipment and portable device. It includes a complete inspection and security check of every electrical device, which prevents unexpected breakdowns.
The testing and tagging of electric equipment not only helps in creating a secure workplace, but also maintains the functionality and performance of the electric equipment. It will make maintenance easier for you.
However, do you know how often does electric equipment needs to be tested and tagged? Every industry has to follow some unique guidelines for testing and tagging according to their requirements.
Here we have discussed the test and tag requirements for different industries, you need to know.
Demolition, Construction, and Building Industry
The building and construction companies use a lot of electric equipment and portable appliances on a daily basis in a rough environment. The chances of damages and malfunction of equipment at a construction site are very high.
The minor issue can cause heavy damages at a construction site and risk the lives of hundreds of workers. So, the construction equipment and portable appliances should be tested and tagged every three months.
Production, Warehouses, and Factories
Factories, warehouses, and production units are the second largest industries, which use a variety of electric appliances to perform an everyday task. They use equipment like forklifts, scissor lifts, and hand trucks to transport heavy goods from a place to another.
The warehouse equipment requires testing and tagging every six months to maintain the functionality and performance of the electric appliances. Moreover, it also helps in preventing unwanted dangers and save the lives of workers.
Shops, Offices & Hotels
Shops, offices, and hotels are also equipped with advanced electric devices, which are exposed to thousands of visitors. The minor error can risk the lives of people and cause serious damage to the property as well. If you want to maintain the good performance of the equipment, then you need to perform testing and tagging for some items every year, other items can be every 5 years.
As the appliances are installed in a suitable environment, the risk of damages is always the least.
It breaks down like this:
- Hotels: (Every 2 years, for the rooms, tends to be every 12 months for common areas).
- Shops: (Most things tend to be 12 monthly.
- Offices: It breaks down like this… If the appliance has it’s cord bent or flexed in normal use or is open to abuse (e.g. possible have a chair run over it, potentially have someone abuse the cord or appliance or open to other damage then it’s 12 monthly). If the appliance is dormant, doesn’t have the cord bent and flexed in normal use & doesn’t have any opportunity to abuse then 5 yearly is acceptable).
Hostile environments
Hostile environments, where the electric equipment and devices are exposed to physical abuse, moisture, and dust require a little extra attention. All these things can cause serious trouble to the electric appliances and affect their performance as well.
Some industries also have surroundings, where electric appliances are at risk of being overused. In such cases, the electric devices and equipment should be tested regularly like every single month.
