['Electrical Safety', 'Specialized Industries']
['Bakery Equipment', 'Electrical Safety']
10/01/2024
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There seems to be nothing in the OSHA regulations that would specifically prohibit this practice. In 1910.305(j)—Equipment for general use, (3)—Appliances, it says: (ii) A means shall be provided to disconnect each appliance (it does not specify what type of disconnecting means). The electrical standards define appliances as: Utilization equipment, generally other than industrial, normally built in standardized sizes or types, which is installed or connected as a unit to perform one or more functions such as clothes washing, air conditioning, food mixing, deep frying, etc.
In 1910.334(b)—Electric power and lighting circuits it says:
(1)—Routing opening and closing of circuits—Loads and rated switches, circuit breakers, or other devices specifically designed as disconnecting means shall be used for the opening, reversing, or closing of circuits under load conditions. Cable connectors not of the load break type, fuses, terminal lugs, and cable splice connections may not be used for such purposes, except in an emergency.
(2)—Reclosing circuits after protective device operation—After a circuit is deenergized by a circuit protective device, the circuit protective device, the circuit may not be manually reenergized until it has been determined that the equipment and circuit can be safely energized. The repetitive manual reclosing of circuit breakers or reenergizing circuits through replaced fuses is prohibited.
Note: When it can be determined from the design of the circuit and the overcurrent devices involved that the automatic operation of a device was caused by an overload rather than a fault condition, no examination of the circuit or connected equipment is needed before the circuit is reenergized.
And in 1910.303—General requirements, (f)—Identification of disconnecting means and circuits, it says: each disconnecting means required by this subpart for motors and appliances shall be legibly marked to indicate its purpose, unless located and arranged so the purpose is evident. Each service, feeder, and branch circuit, at its disconnecting means or overcurrent device, shall be legibly marked to indicate its purpose, unless located and arranged so the purpose is evident. These markings shall be of sufficient durability to withstand the environment involved.
The following information is from the National Electric Code. It also does not rule out this practice.
422.33—Disconnection of Cord-and-Plug-Connected Appliances:
(A) Separable Connector or an Attachment Plug and Receptacle. For cord-and-plug connected appliances, an accessible separable connector or an accessible plug and receptacle shall be permitted to serve as the disconnecting means. Where the separable connector or plug and receptacle are not accessible, cord-and-plug-connected appliances shall be provided with disconnecting means in accordance with 422.31.
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['Electrical Safety', 'Specialized Industries']
['Bakery Equipment', 'Electrical Safety']
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