Whether you’ve been an electrician for decades or are just starting out, you should already have some idea that higher quality tools and equipment make work simpler, faster and safer. This is especially true of electrical equipment, as the more you invest in this department the more benefits you’re bound to see in your day to day operations. Although superior electrical equipment is more expensive than run of the mill tools, that doesn’t necessarily indicate that they don’t need to be regularly tested and calibrated. In this article, we take a look at a few reasons why this might be the case.
Testing means safety first
Whether you’re looking at a multimeter calibration or testing something beefier, checking in on your electrical equipment is one of the most important things you can do on any worksite. Although accuracy obviously plays a big part in the testing of equipment, perhaps the most important reason for regularly testing and calibrating equipment is to ensure that any safety risks and hazards are minimised at every point. Even high quality tools can be affected by unexpected or overlooked factors like poor storage methods, gradual physical damage or degradation and moisture or dust build-up or damage. Ensuring that all of your equipment is tested for safety purposes also provides the benefit of helping you stay on top of government legislation compliance. It’s the case in most Australian states that employers are legally obligated to provide employees with a safe working environment, and testing and calibrating electrical equipment is one of the best ways to quickly identify not only present risks, but those that might be associated. If you choose not to act on information relating to risks, you may either cop a huge fine, need to shut down your work site or even find yourself locked into a lawsuit.
Develop a better understanding of your resources
It can often be the case that the testing of equipment may reveal some information that you might not have anticipated – namely, a situation where a piece of electrical equipment is about to fail. Knowing approximately when a piece of electrical equipment is about to stop working can give you a heads up about repair or replacement so that you can do all of the organisation before the equipment actually does die. Not being able to prepare in such a way would traditionally mean that worksites might lose a few hours – or even days – due to integral components not being accessible, but testing overcomes this limitation. More regular testing can also shed some light on some aspects of your equipment that have regular issues, which allows for you to work out how to extend the life on not only that piece of equipment, but all those of the same variety you might use in the future.
Ready to get your equipment calibrated and tested?
If it’s been a while since you last calibrated or tested your electrical equipment, now might be the time to take a closer inspection of your tools. Better yet, positive and constructive results might give you more incentive to keep up with regular calibration and testing, helping your worksite be more productive, safer and more accurate in the long term.
