Greetings all,
Perhaps you can provide some guidance concerning the following:
Situation: Manufacturing plant, production area. Process area requires equipment used in the sterilization of product (reactors) to be receptacle plugged (120VAC 20A circuits). Equipment is "portable" in that the reactors are connected to steam, domestic water and electrical supply during the processing phase in our "production kitchen" then rolled into their dispensing areas (different rooms). Production kitchen and especially the process area mentioned are very much "wet" areas; reactors sit over a large floor sink and are rinsed, wetted, drained in this location.
I'm not well enough versed in the Code to interpret this scenario. I get the Code specifies all sorts of rules concerning residential installations, commercial installations (assuming for bathrooms, kitchens in those types of construction??) and so on... but am not seeing specifications for manufacturing areas.
Simply put, I get that I want to protect staff from electrocution hazards, and especially in wet location/high risk areas. Presently the stations are protected by GFI outlets, but we cannot solve nuisance tripping on much of this type of equipment and continue to find employees running extension cords to non-GFI outlets to keep their equipment running. Some of the faults are caused by equipment design (European designed and built, where their standard is GFPE / 30 mA); as built it will not fault at that stray current, but will fault on 4-6 mA GFI. This equipment is production critical, costs $100K per unit +/-... and "just fix the equipment" is easier said than done.
Appreciate if someone could point me at specifics that answer one of two things:
1. You're golden because the code does not address the GFI requirements in your situation (at which point I'll protect to the GFPE standard), or...
2.You're screwed. You must protect to GFI standard, and here's why.
Thanking all of the experts in advance...
PM
Perhaps you can provide some guidance concerning the following:
Situation: Manufacturing plant, production area. Process area requires equipment used in the sterilization of product (reactors) to be receptacle plugged (120VAC 20A circuits). Equipment is "portable" in that the reactors are connected to steam, domestic water and electrical supply during the processing phase in our "production kitchen" then rolled into their dispensing areas (different rooms). Production kitchen and especially the process area mentioned are very much "wet" areas; reactors sit over a large floor sink and are rinsed, wetted, drained in this location.
I'm not well enough versed in the Code to interpret this scenario. I get the Code specifies all sorts of rules concerning residential installations, commercial installations (assuming for bathrooms, kitchens in those types of construction??) and so on... but am not seeing specifications for manufacturing areas.
Simply put, I get that I want to protect staff from electrocution hazards, and especially in wet location/high risk areas. Presently the stations are protected by GFI outlets, but we cannot solve nuisance tripping on much of this type of equipment and continue to find employees running extension cords to non-GFI outlets to keep their equipment running. Some of the faults are caused by equipment design (European designed and built, where their standard is GFPE / 30 mA); as built it will not fault at that stray current, but will fault on 4-6 mA GFI. This equipment is production critical, costs $100K per unit +/-... and "just fix the equipment" is easier said than done.
Appreciate if someone could point me at specifics that answer one of two things:
1. You're golden because the code does not address the GFI requirements in your situation (at which point I'll protect to the GFPE standard), or...
2.You're screwed. You must protect to GFI standard, and here's why.
Thanking all of the experts in advance...
PM
