NFPA 79 – Electrical Standard for Industrial Machinery Overview with High Tech Design Safety

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There are many different standards that can apply to your equipment and it can be difficult to know which one is the right one…Many times the standards seem the same. Other times your equipment might not fall directly in the scope of one particular standard but may span several different standards. Or even sometimes you might need to select standards for the USA, European Union and other countries.

Our team has spent over 30 years helping customer to determine the right standards or set of standards for their specific path to market. By scoping the standards early you can more readily and sooner design your equipment to those standards, provide a scope for quotation to us or another evaluation test and certification laboratory, and hold those laboratories to a scope to minimize scope creep and thereby test to the specific standards required by the scope of your equipment.

Your goal is to make your design and product development process as easy as possible and by doing early conformity discoveries and design reviews while implementing the standard in design and review is going to make your process way easier. We find that companies that wait till the end of the design process or even until the end of first article production tend to spend twice as much time and we have no idea how much more money to get it right at the end. It’s much harder on the process, the development schedule and timeline, and the team to try and come up with solutions after it’s over, after the equipment is developed, produced, prototyped and even sent to customers. It is extremely harmful to morale, and even your own standing within the company. Avoid these pitfalls, work with the standard and a product safety team early on.  And like one of the clients we talked to today… be conservative in how long it will take to get through certification. Set yourself up for a win by implementing these recommendations.

Today, Steve Barcik Amstel is giving an overview of NFPA 79 which provides safeguards for industrial machinery to protect operators, equipment, facilities, and work-in-progress from fire and electrical hazards.

Link to video also available here: https://youtu.be/YM5d8VsyXbg

NFPA is the National Fire Protection Association in the US and their standards provide design requirements to increase electrical safety to and reduce fire and loss in residential, commercial, and industrial facilities.

This industrial equipment standard is required to be designed into your equipment, as part of the suitability for use requirement. You may use other similar UL and/or ANSI standards if that applies specifically to your equipment; however, NFPA 79 is one of the primary standards out there that will prove suitability of use for your equipment within the United States.

The scope of NFPA 79 is for the electrical parts of industrial equipment. Similar standards such as IEC 60204, and even IEC 61010 and IEC 60950 may be applicable or there may be a specific standard that is more directly in scope for your equipment such as IEC 60204 –33. IEC 60204-33:2009 applies to electrical and electronic equipment associated with semiconductor fabrication equipment for the manufacture, measurement, test, and assembly of semiconductors.

So for example, if you build a piece of industrial equipment and ship it, when it is installed there may be an electrical inspection at installation. During that electrical inspection, they will be looking for correct nameplates, wire sizing and other things like that, and a third party or filed label sticker on the product indicating that it is compliant and suitable for use. In addition to that label or sticker, that authority having jurisdiction may also request a copy of the report. So you need to be ready if that happens.

Designing your equipment to NFPA 79 and using that standard during design, referring to it and using as a checklist during design reviews and product safety reviews will allow you to be sure that at the point when you need an inspection, certification or a field labeling. Having the standard available makes it easier for you to meet the requirements of the standard.

NFPA 79 has many sections in it and in the future we will to through each of these sections line by line so that you will fully understand the standard and be capable of implementing it within your product and your design process. Then you can go forward and get an evaluation and certification of your equipment and provide it to your end users within the US. There are other similar standards globally, specifically IEC 60204 which are nearly harmonized with NFPA 79 for use for CE marking.

Please be sure to like and subscribe to get notifications of the next videos in this training. And if you have questions about getting your product to market please get into touch with us here at High Tech Design Safety. https://hightechdesignsafety.com/

NFPA 1                   Fire Code

NFPA 2                  Hydrogen Technologies Code

NFPA 30                 Flammable and Combustible Liquids Code

NFPA 33                 Standard for Spray Application Using Flammable or Combustible Materials

NFPA 34                 Standard for Dipping, Coating, and Printing Processes Using Flammable or Combustible Liquids

NFPA 35                 Standard for the Manufacture of Organic Coatings

NFPA 36                 Standard for Solvent Extraction Plants

NFPA 37                 Standard for the Installation and Use of Stationary Combustion Engines and Gas Turbines

NFPA 40                 Standard for the Storage and Handling of Cellulose Nitrate Film

NFPA 42                 Code for the Storage of Pyroxylin Plastic

NFPA 45                 Standard on Fire Protection for Laboratories Using Chemicals

NFPA 55                 Compressed Gases and Cryogenic Fluids Code

NFPA 56                 Standard for Fire and Explosion Prevention During Cleaning and Purging of Flammable Gas Piping Systems

NFPA 70®              National Electrical Code®

NFPA 70A              National Electrical Code® Requirements for One- and Two-Family Dwellings

NFPA 70B              Recommended Practice for Electrical Equipment Maintenance

NFPA 70E®           Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace®

NFPA 86                 Standard for Ovens and Furnaces

NFPA 86C              Standard for Industrial Furnaces Using a Special Processing Atmosphere

NFPA 86D             Standard for Industrial Furnaces Using Vacuum as an Atmosphere

NFPA 87                Standard for Fluid Heaters

NFPA 115              Standard for Laser Fire Protection

NFPA 329             Recommended Practice for Handling Releases of Flammable and Combustible Liquids and Gases

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