When an incident can cause injuries that can be life-changing or life-ending, it’s no surprise that Arc Flash training protects your workforce from these hazards.
General health and safety training and a culture of recording and talking about near misses will all help develop a workforce that looks out for, and is more likely to avoid, hazards.
But when an incident can be caused by something as simple as a dropped tool, specialist Arc Flash training will help protect your people.
Arc Flash training – the basics
Before training your workforce about the dos and don’ts of Arc Flash you need to have detailed information about the equipment and systems they will be working on. Generic training will only get them so far.
Step one would be an Arc Flash study, also referred to as an Arc Flash analysis or a hazard analysis. Conducted by an expert trained to evaluate your electrical system and note areas potentially presenting a risk to your personnel or equipment. You can read more about what’s involved here.
For European companies and institutions, there is no explicit obligation to perform an Arc Flash Hazard analysis. However, knowing the risks of Arc Flash incidents, UK employers make protecting their workforce by preventing Arc Flash a priority, and the first step to prevention is understanding the risks.
If your teams are working with electricity every day, it is essential that you provide them with Arc Flash awareness training to help them understand the risks, conduct dynamic risk assessments and work safely.
Training should be made available to electricians, electrical engineers and anyone responsible for or working on electrical switchgear. It should cover legislation, terminology, hazard and risk analysis, PPE and include details on the requirements for reporting hazards.
Alongside formal training, we recommend you follow up regularly to check the training has been understood and is being consistently applied on the job. Creating a strong health and safety culture where people talk openly about risks, check each other’s work, challenge dangerous behaviour and use best practice every day is the best way of keeping your people safe.
On the job training – will keeping your distance keep you safe?
Teams and individuals working in an area with shock hazards need to understand protection boundaries, when to keep their distance and what PPE is required if they’re going to be getting up close and personal with the equipment.
It’s possible to sustain severe burns from an Arc Flash from five or six meters away from the source of the flash.
Your Arc Flash assessment will calculate the size of the risk and help you determine where your high risk and “safe” boundaries are. Anyone working within the restricted boundary needs to be wearing appropriate PPE to the scale of the risk.
It’s not just about training – what else is needed to protect your workforce from Arc Flash?
When an Arc Flash study identifies a high-risk situation, taking the necessary steps to minimise that risk is imperative. Investing in the necessary PPE can be the difference between life and death.
At ProGARM our Arc Flash personal protective clothing provides more protection than other standard flame-resistant clothing.
This is thanks to our exclusive VXS+ fabric. Because it’s made from fibres that have inherent flame-retardant properties, the protection can’t be washed out or fade with wear.
All our PPE clothing as finished garments – not just the fabrics – meet European standards and regulations, holding an EC certification relevant to the intended use and/ or industry.
All garments conform to a minimum EN ISO 6330: 2012 DOMESTIC for washing, and some go further to meet the industrial washing standard (EN ISO15797: 2018 INDUSTRIAL). Rigorously tested for 50 wash cycles, our garments demonstrate less than 3% shrinkage.
When we create our garments, we look at each component of the clothing – from fabric to buttons and zips – to ensure it will provide the protection needed in an Arc Flash incident.
Read more about what makes ProGARM’s range of Arc Flash PPE more effective than standard flame resistant clothing here.
Arc Flash training protects your workforce by raising their awareness of the hazards and risks, and if the worst happens, ProGARM protective clothing will protect them too – call our experts on +44 (0) 1482 679600.
Make sure that you’re specifying the right PPE for your team.
Read our free guide on the top considerations when choosing Arc Flash clothing & PPE below and make the best choice for you and your team via the link below ⬇.
