Installation Electrician Needed?

[Borrie]

Good day,

I am new to the Forum and have found it very helpful this far. I am hoping someone can help me with the following:

We build water purifying machines. Its basically filters, 3ph pumps, uv lights, control panel etc. on a steel frame skid. The question is do you need to be a Installation Electrician to design and build these control panels? We do not connect it to the building's power grid. We only supply the skid, they connect power and we commission.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

[julies]

I don't believe you need to be a qualified instillation electrician to design anything. But obviously when you do design you need to follow certain electrical standards and principles. It helps to have some sort of qualification and experience in the electrical field for this, but its not actually necessary Having a third party connect should be sufficient. IMO... I could be wrong tho, maybe the final check before handing over to the installation guys needs to be signed off by someone qualified to take responsibility for the build, but this does not necessary have to be an installation electrician.

[AndyD]

Tricky one. If you supply the control panel I'd say you'd need to be able to prove your competence to design and build it and although some of the regs regarding control systems (ie E-Stops, other safety systems, design of high output UVC systems etc) are outside the general installation regs being a registered sparky would certainly go a long way towards demonstrating competence.

The electrician who connects the control panel is responsible for ensuring manufacturers guidelines are followed and he's responsible for the final supply circuit he installs. If there's a fundamental issue with the panel and control design he wouldn't be primarily responsible for this.

Are your completed panels/systems certified according to SABS?

[Leecatt]

Tricky one. If you supply the control panel I'd say you'd need to be able to prove your competence to design and build it and although some of the regs regarding control systems (ie E-Stops, other safety systems, design of high output UVC systems etc) are outside the general installation regs being a registered sparky would certainly go a long way towards demonstrating competence.

The electrician who connects the control panel is responsible for ensuring manufacturers guidelines are followed and he's responsible for the final supply circuit he installs. If there's a fundamental issue with the panel and control design he wouldn't be primarily responsible for this.

Are your completed panels/systems certified according to SABS?

I was also going to suggest that the equipment would have to be certified to some kind of safety standards, namely the SABS.
An installation electrician is only allowed to connect SABS certified equipment into the power grid as according to Table 4.2 of SANS 10142-1:2009

[Justloadit]

This may prove difficult on turnkey projects, as each project has its own set of equipment to make it work. It may be that the individual items may have some sort of standard, however once they are connected, they become a new set of equipment. To get each one SABS approval will firstly cost the earth, and secondly would take months before a certificate is issued for the equipment test.

I am getting some of my equipment SABS certification for EMI, glow wire, and stress test, and Iam already in for over R70K, and still a ways to go. If your equipment fails any test, you have to go through the whole process for a retest once you have modified it.

[Borrie]

Thanks for the replies.

Im an Electro Mechanical Technician, I have done single phase systems ,3 phase systems, Automation control, PLC's, Design of elecgronic circuits, Transformers etc in my studies and have worked for about 4 years as an electrical automation technician where I designed and manufactured automation control panels but it was all checked by my superior who was an electrical engineer. I started at a new company and I am the one in charge of the electrical department and was just wondering what qualification you really need? I do follow the standards ie wire and cable sizes, breaker and overload sizing and as mentioned emergency stop circuits. The equipment is all SABS or IEC as they are from Electromechanica. Does the fact that all the equipment is certified to SABS or IEC make the final panel SABS certified?

Thanks