Thread: Electrical Test and Tag

Someone at my work got reprimanded for donating a used Nespresso machine to the staff room without having it tested and tagged. Apparently it caused a problem on the power system.
We have been told nothing electrical can be connected to our work system unless it has been tested and tagged first.

Originally Posted by pop058

Without being a licensed Electrician in Qld you are required to do a 1 day course to be ticketed to do test and tag. And then you can only do your own gear.

Dunno,i thought this was the rule

No - you don't need to be an electrician or have an electrical background to test and tag in Australia. According to Australian Standards AS/NZS 3760, you must be deemed a 'Competent Person'. This can achieved by undertaking a Test & Tag Course, which usually takes 1 day to complete.

No mention of only doing your own gear

Yep, simple course, no Electrical experience required before attending. Most of our Mechanics are ticketed to test.

Testing machines can be a cheap Insulation resistance tester (Meggar) as mentioned or fully pimped out PAT testers like we use in each branch that scans the bar code of the asset, records a pass or fail, logs the info via wifi in some larger branches or daily download to our main software so the test appears on the service history of the item, then prints the sticker with all information, test date, tester, licence number, asset number, etc and keeps us ISO compliant - about $5K a pop I believe.

You can make it as simple or as complicated as you like.

Originally Posted by Homestar

Yep, simple course, no Electrical experience required before attending. Most of our Mechanics are ticketed to test.

Testing machines can be a cheap Insulation resistance tester (Meggar) as mentioned or fully pimped out PAT testers like we use in each branch that scans the bar code of the asset, records a pass or fail, logs the info via wifi in some larger branches or daily download to our main software so the test appears on the service history of the item, then prints the sticker with all information, test date, tester, licence number, asset number, etc and keeps us ISO compliant - about $5K a pop I believe.

You can make it as simple or as complicated as you like.

I still use a Meggar to do mine.

Originally Posted by pop058

Without being a licensed Electrician in Qld you are required to do a 1 day course to be ticketed to do test and tag. And then you can only do your own gear.

A friend's son started a job as a trainee technician with a major computer company. He is in Brisbane and had to do a short course and obtain a restricted electrical ticket to fit or change three pin plugs.

When my brother & I had out steel & aluminum business we did our test & tag every 3 months for over 40 years . I had a test & tad licence & limited electrical licence & along with an electrician we would test over 300 electrical appliances over a 12hr period on a Saturday. No tool that had electronics or circuit boards including mig welders or computers were meggered so as not to damage the boards. All leads were tested for earth & continuity & had visual inspection. If leads were damageb they were either cut back & a new plug fitted or plugs cut of & dumped. We also had test equipment to test all the earth leakage / safty switches either in the switch boards or portable. All test resultes were recorded in our electrical tool register .
When we had site work all electrical equipment going to site was tested & taged before going to site even if it had only been tested the week end before.
AFTER DOING ALL THAT IT WAS ONLY AS GOOD AS THE MOMENT IT WAS TESTED you could bet by midday on the Monday there would be a couple of cut leads on the maintenance bench .
We also removed , inspected & replaced the brushs if they were down to 3/4 worn on all drills & grinders . We found by doing this we would get up to 3 times the life out of the tool.