Poratable appliance testing PAT

Welcome back to our pat testing blog. We hope you are finding it useful so far.

As mentioned in yesterdays blog we want to take a look at the frequency of testing issues.

Much confusion seems to reign in this area, we hope to be able to shed some light.

A guidance for the frequency of testing is found in the IET code of portable appliance testing hand book. This is the staring point for most organisations who base there services around this manual.

The end frequency of testing relates to the environment and conditions that the equipment is in use. Each office environment is different and as such a standard time scale for the whole sectors of industry are not really workable.

The IET provide the information to guide engineers in determining frequency of testing. Ultimately the decision rests with the company or person carrying out the testing. For example construction site equipment would be tested at least every 3 months and a small well maintained office may only require testing of IT equipment every 48 months.

Whilst we appreciate costs are important to our customers, we try to promote a testing frequency of 12 months were possible in most standard situations. This enables excellent item safety and provides asset tracking facility's. We want to have as many safe appliances in use as possible. A large office for example with multiple users at each workstation can be heavily used with possible damage to cables and equipment. We think it is better to review these locations much more regularly, at the very least visually inspecting each workstation annually.

There is a lot of information out in the industry regarding this and lots of different suppliers work to different frequency's. That is due to the varying nature of business in the UK. Ultimately you have to be happy with the supplier you choose to work closely on developing effective testing procedures for your company.

The end result of regular testing is safer equipment, if testing in excess of the minimum quoted timescale results in one less injury,fire or death then it is without doubt the correct way to proceed.

Seaward provide a handy overview in PDF format should you register at there site. I recommend you read this information. Apart from the obvious advertising of there equipment some important information and tips can be found.

Please see http://www.seaward.co.uk/compliance_form.asp

For more information on our services see http://www.powersonic-online.co.uk

Thanks for reading and keep checking back

Power Sonic Ltd.