PAT Testing
- Thread starter conny
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Around 20 years ago I was employed because a firm had been told off by HSE for lack of inspection and testing, they had a tester which was in brand new condition and it had been set away for traceable calibration ready for me to start updating all the records, my comment on starting was do you think computer records would be a good idea, as if you do now is the time, and so a program was ordered, the tester was old and all it had was a pass and fail light, but the computer program wanted the figure entering so I asked what should I do, answer was so simple kicked myself, it was look at the calibration certificate and enter what it says is the pass point, however the certificate was traceable, so no problem I could get that info, however it meant the software could not be used and was returned, and I used excel instead as once I knew the pass figure it was simple to swap "pass1" for "1MΩ" or any other figure.
It had it seems been sub-contracted, our main electrical supplier had taken the tester and had it calibrated else where for us, so I started pestering more and more for the figures, and after around 2 months they asked if they could take the tester back to calibration house as they could not find the records, so much for traceable. So off it went, then we were told it was such an old design it was testing to a previous pass mark, think it was passing at 500kΩ rather than 1MΩ but I am going back 20 years so may be wrong. So all my records were useless, it could have passed things when it should have failed them, and by this time I had around 4 months work of testing I had just about caught up, so I was not amused, we got a new tester as a reduced price as a result, but I also realised there was no point in paying for traceable calibration as clearly it was neither traceable or calibrated.
In the same way as we use a proving unit to test the voltage tester when proving dead, we got some resistors etc to test the tester, and from that point done in-house. Today we again use a calibration house, but mainly it is to satisfy insurers, we have two loop impedance testers and main point is they show nearly same result so the chance of both drifting off calibration together is rather slim. Calibration is done once a year, you don't want a years worth of testing being shown as useless as tester out of calibration, so testers compared once a week, or a know item tested so if results change it is clear tester has drifted. I do not use a tester with simple pass/fail lights, so I am well aware if the tester is faulty within the week.
Since health and safety the procedure for testing is written down in the method statement so we can show if a instrument goes faulty over what period the fault happened. And so items can be traced and retested. The equipment register is clearly important, without it we could not return an retest items. We keep the same plant number or name, so we can go back in some case 100 years and show a trend, OK that is not electrical the "Earl" is a steam loco, but principle is the same, in the main electrical testing date is kept for 4 tests so can see a trend, after that it should be deleted but often isn't. Normally held until computer and back up hard drive is replaced.
At the moment there is a problem, Covid-19 has resulted in no testing, so before the railway can restart we will need to do a lot of testing, unlike car MOT boiler tickets have not been given an extension.
It had it seems been sub-contracted, our main electrical supplier had taken the tester and had it calibrated else where for us, so I started pestering more and more for the figures, and after around 2 months they asked if they could take the tester back to calibration house as they could not find the records, so much for traceable. So off it went, then we were told it was such an old design it was testing to a previous pass mark, think it was passing at 500kΩ rather than 1MΩ but I am going back 20 years so may be wrong. So all my records were useless, it could have passed things when it should have failed them, and by this time I had around 4 months work of testing I had just about caught up, so I was not amused, we got a new tester as a reduced price as a result, but I also realised there was no point in paying for traceable calibration as clearly it was neither traceable or calibrated.
In the same way as we use a proving unit to test the voltage tester when proving dead, we got some resistors etc to test the tester, and from that point done in-house. Today we again use a calibration house, but mainly it is to satisfy insurers, we have two loop impedance testers and main point is they show nearly same result so the chance of both drifting off calibration together is rather slim. Calibration is done once a year, you don't want a years worth of testing being shown as useless as tester out of calibration, so testers compared once a week, or a know item tested so if results change it is clear tester has drifted. I do not use a tester with simple pass/fail lights, so I am well aware if the tester is faulty within the week.
Since health and safety the procedure for testing is written down in the method statement so we can show if a instrument goes faulty over what period the fault happened. And so items can be traced and retested. The equipment register is clearly important, without it we could not return an retest items. We keep the same plant number or name, so we can go back in some case 100 years and show a trend, OK that is not electrical the "Earl" is a steam loco, but principle is the same, in the main electrical testing date is kept for 4 tests so can see a trend, after that it should be deleted but often isn't. Normally held until computer and back up hard drive is replaced.
At the moment there is a problem, Covid-19 has resulted in no testing, so before the railway can restart we will need to do a lot of testing, unlike car MOT boiler tickets have not been given an extension.
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