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Standards Australia: Improved safety for mining equipment
Two Australian Standards currently cover the design, construction and testing of plugs, receptacles and couplers used to enable a power supply mining cable to be connected to coal mining equipment or to another cable.
These Standards are AS 1299—1993 Electrical equipment for coal mines— Flameproof restrained plugs and receptacles and AS 1300—1989 Electrical equipment for coal mines—Bolted flameproof cable coupling devices.
To maintain their currency, Joint AS/NZS Committee EL-023 Electrical Equipment in Mines has recently initiated the revision of these Standards by a subcommittee.
One of the major problems with the use of these products has been the inability to interconnect some plugs, receptacles or couplers of different makes. To overcome this incompatibility problem the revised Standards have proposed two types of plugs, receptacles and couplers, namely:
• Type A, which feature dimensions that allow the interconnection of products of different makes;
• Type B, which do not claim compatibility with Type A products.
Coincidentally, during the revision process two incidents occurred in local coal mines where mine workers received electric shocks from mining plugs. Fortunately these shocks were not fatal but subsequent investigations pointed to deficiencies in the earthing of the products involved.
The Subcommittee is currently modifying the earthing requirements of the draft Standards to mitigate against this problem recurring.
The Subcommittee is aiming to publish drafts of the revised Standards for Public Comment early in 2007.
To stay up to date and view a full list of drafts for comment visit www.standards.org.au.
Standards Australia’s project managers’ facilitate committees comprised of experts representing a broad cross section of industry and the community, such as governments, industry bodies, trade and professional associations, academia and consumer groups.
Standards Australia is recognized by the government as Australia’s peak standards body. It develops Australian Standards of public benefit and national interest and supports excellence in design and innovation.