Potential arc flash hazards need to be visually marked on the machines and accounted for in your Safety and Health Management System. In order to do this, you need to identify all hazards and determine how best to prevent them from affecting your business and your employees.

Many employers choose to run their arc flash analysis in house, and have their staff determine their hazards. And while there are many highly qualified arc flash experts out there, if you do not have one on your team, then you are asking an inexperienced team to learn about an extremely complicated matter with no one to help them. This can be a daunting task for a member of your team and can ultimately leave you liable if a mistake is made by the unqualified individual.

Some common mistakes include companies only testing equipment over 240 V and not testing equipment supplied by a Hazard Risk Category 0 panel. The first mistake is based upon a common misconception in IEEE 1584 which governs Arc Flash Analysis. In IEEE they do set a base of 240 volts, however that is based upon incident energy calculations and does not exempt any companies from OSHA or NFPA requirements. As for the second point, it is important to remember that a Hazard Risk Category 0 feed does not guarantee the next machine will be a Hazard Risk Category 0.

If you have any questions about Arc Flash or how a third party can help you, please contact us so that we can help you through this difficult process. And if you have anything you would like to add about arc flash hazard prevention, please leave a comment.