ring circiut in industrial environment

[jim23]

not strictly DIY but id appreciatte some thoughts as i know there's some good sparks on here.

went to look at a job today at a small ish workshop.

there was a ring circuit (singles in conduit) feeding 5 sockets around a small workshop. (no rcd protection required). job is a couple of new socket faces.

the conduit ran to a tap-off box that was clipped onto a 3 phase busbar. inside the tap off was a bs88 32A fuse for the ring circuit. the other phases in the tap off were used to power lighting in the workshop. the nuetral was packed with about 7 cables for the ring and light circuits.

can anybody see why a circiut cant be distributed in this way, seems a little odd but not sure its breaking any regs.

also the legs of the ring werent even- there was a long run from the furthest socket on the ring back to the tap off box.

what would you guys do- even them out or leave it as not breaking any regs? i ask as evening them out looks like a task in itself!

 

[ricicle]

We have scores of tapping boxes in our factory wired this way.You just have to look at the tapping box as a 3 way fuse board so as long as circuits themselves are correctly sized/fused then there is no real problem.
Our tapping boxes are 45 years old so there is only a single neutral terminal and no earth terminal ( you have to bolt to the box) so if you want to disconnect 1 circuit in a box supplying 3 single phase loads you have to isolate all 3 circuits to remove the neutrals and earths properly (no snipping off!)
As for the ring leg lengths then it is down to poor design initially and there is probably nothing you can do about it unless the customer wants to pay you to correct it.
Ideally the legs should alternate each socket so you have as closer balance as possible.