40 Cal Arc Flash Suit Clarification
According to OSHA reports electricians have one of the most dangerous jobs in the country.
Working on electrical appliances is one thing but when it comes to industrial work applications proper protective equipment such as ppe gear with an arc flash rating is essential. Facilities need to have assessments and arc flash analysis studies performed on all the equipment that workers will come in contact with which will determine the calorie rating of the ppe safety clothing required.
Many companies rely on outside experts to determine what protection they need or this can be done in house with the use of arc flash calculator software.
For example if it is determined that your arc flash study requires that you need protection of 34.9 cal/cm2 then you will require a 40 cal arc flash suit. Most suits or kits come in the range of 8, 12, 20, 25 , 40 cal cm2 and above so the protective equipment needs to be above the incident level determined by the analys whether it was determined by calculator software, a hired consultant or even by the use of the NFPA 70E standard Table 130.7(C)(9)(a) which is organized by the voltage level.
All the equipment at the facility needs to have arc flash labels attached to them indicating what cal rating or HTPV is required be it a 40 cal cm2 arc flash suit or whatever is required according to the outcome of the study.
This can become somewhat of an issue as some companies may want to cover the worse case scenario and purchase the highest rated protective equipment to cover all the arc flash ppe categories.
The problem with this method is that the higher cal rating ppe is a lot heavier and hot to work in and is quite the burden especially when only working in lower risk arc flash category levels such as 8-10 cal. This especially true if the “live” work involved is for an extended time and heat stress and exhaustion become a problem.
This is food for thought and my personal experience in working with customers and I thought you would like to hear about these circumstances that other clients of ours in the same field as you are having.
40 cal Arc Flash Kit KIT4SC40
Terry Smeader
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Tags: 40 Cal Arc Flash Suit, 40 cal cm2 arc flash suit, arc flash analysis, arc flash calculator, arc flash category levels, arc flash labels, arc flash ppe categories, arc flash rating, arc flash study, arc flash suit ratings, NFPA 70E, ppe gear, protective equipment, safety clothing
