3 Phase PAT Testing

[PATman]

Hi,

Never really had to deal with 3 Phase testing before, but a new potential customer has some 3 Phase equipment. However, reading up on this, I can buy/make & use 415V 3 Phase adaptors, but these still only test for earth bond/continuity. So basically the equipment hasn't been fully tested, only for Earthing???

Is it worth doing these, or just explain to the customer he would need a fully qualified sparky to do a full multimeter testing and part strip downs to test it properly, a service I cannot supply.

Any advice welcomed...

Thanks

Ian

[Alan Freeman]

Ian

To my mind you can perform the most important two tests.

Earth continuity as you suggested.

Insulation. As this test shorts L & N internally to test insulation to Earth, if you wired up a 3 phase socket to a 13A plug with all three phases connected to either L or N you could do that test.

Personally, I would suggest N as IF the tester proceeds to the leakage test, it won't actually power the device up.

Hope this helps.

[Patnik]

We join the 3 Ls and N together within the 3 phase inline socket and also remove the N pin from the 13A plug just in case some twit borrows the test adapter and tries using it to power up 3 phase kit from a 13A socket (they are an inventive lot where I work

Most of our 3 phase kit has auto restart prevent type power switches which means a PAT insulation test isn't going to reach the important bits so I don't usually do an insulation test nowadays - in my opinion 40 year old machine tools really need a proper internal checking over visually and with a Megger once in a while.

[Amy Lyons]

Hi All

Some good answers there thanks guys.
Just wanted to also let you know that if you are required to test 3 phase equipment for leakage you can use an Apollo or a PT250 (including the new PT250+ tester) along with the below adapter:
http://www.seaward.co.uk/products/portable-appliance-testing-equipment/portable-appliance-testing-accessories/leads-adaptors-1/tpa-series-3-phase-adaptor

[Grizzly]

We join the 3 Ls and N together within the 3 phase inline socket and also remove the N pin from the 13A plug just in case some twit borrows the test adapter and tries using it to power up 3 phase kit from a 13A socket (they are an inventive lot where I work

I would have said it would be better to remove the L assembly (terminal, fuse and pin) from the 13A plug rather than the N pin, to protect against accidental usage, as Alan mentions above.

[PATman]

Thanks to all for the replies...much appreciated.

Will consider investing in a set of adaptors...just need to consider how many times I may be expected to use them against the cost ??? Have seen a set on ebay made up by PASS Ltd for only £40 (doubt I can even make a set myself for that price) ...but that's still about a quarter of the value of the 1 job I have been asked to quote for.

Still I suppose once I have them they're there to use whenever I need them

Thanks again guys....

Ian

[Alan Freeman]

I would have said it would be better to remove the L assembly (terminal, fuse and pin) from the 13A plug rather than the N pin, to protect against accidental usage, as Alan mentions above.

I would leave the pin there but remove the fuse and terminal. Without dragging my Europa out I don't know if it has shutters on the L/N pins.

Either way, you get the gist of what I am saying.