Survey - NFPA 79 Usage

In this thread, http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=26348, I mentioned NFPA 79 which is the Electrical Standard for Industrial Machinery.

For those of you who are OEM's - Do you follow this standard?

For those of you who are end users - Do you require your equipment suppliers to follow this?

What other standards, if any, do you follow?

We do.
I have a copy of it on my desk.

It is a good supplement and clarifier for NEC (as the rules apply to industrial equimpent).
NEC is the fundamental book though. Like most of the industry, we're phasing in the new rules in the 2005 edition of NEC as the standard is adopted by more and more states.

We follow NFPA 79 as well as NEC 2005 as well as UL489.

Nfpa 79

Just a FYI, for those who dont know, the NFPA79 2007 edition was just released and figure to include some of the verbage of NEC2005 regarding short circuit rating and so forth.

End User - We use it.

Rookie Eng, thanks for the press release

Our local electrical inspector requires our machinery to be labeled by a 3rd-Party listing/labeling agency prior to his approval, as it is all European machinery and he is concerned about it's compliance with U.S. standards.

This is not a requirement everywhere, but since it is for us, and the labeling agency uses the NFPA 79 and UL 508A to inspect the machinery, we require the OEM's to build everything NFPA 79 compliant.
Of course we also have OSHA regulations and other requirements, such as pressure vessels, which cause alot of additional discussions and work.

We are an OEM and we use it, but none of our current contracts bind us to the 2007 edition.

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The NFPA 79 2007 edition will be adopted with the next revision of the NEC. The NEC 2005 is still referencing NFPA 79 2002. When the NEC 2008 is released, the NFPA 79 2007 will be the referenced text for Industrial Machinery.

Some inspectors, I have heard, will allow you leniency on existing code and allow you to comply with a newer revision since it is already published by the regulatory agency. This all depends on the inspector, though.

When I was an OEM (I'm now an end user) we used it.

For those of you who commented on your local electrical inspectors requiring other than NFPA 70- I've never been involved in plant maintenance, but I had thought that equipment inside your plant was your business on the load side of the disconnect. Do municipalities require other than installation per NFPA 70 to "allow" a piece of equipment into the plant?

Paul T

Paul T said:

...but I had thought that equipment inside your plant was your business on the load side of the disconnect. Do municipalities require other than installation per NFPA 70 to "allow" a piece of equipment into the plant?

Paul T

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We basically can do whatever we want to do in our end user plants once the initial plant construction inspection is complete and sometimes this in not much more than the shell and main substations are initially installed.

Why would you not want to require at a minimum NFPA 79 compliance? It's a good first step to make sure that the equipment meets a minimum expectation. Safety reviews are also required at the specification/ design/ run off/ final turnover to make sure nothing was overlooked and everyone, including the operators, are happy. If you want world class safety in your plant, you need to be attentative to detail throughout the life of the plant. (If you don't want world class safety, there is a more fundamental problem.) Part of our yearly review to verify a machine's Lockout Tag Out Procedures is to conduct another safety review of the machine to make sure nothing has changed/ worn out/ etc. that needs to be addressed.

Why would you not want to require at a minimum NFPA 79 compliance?

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Agree. I posted in another thread about an incident that occurred when a company I was working for did not require it. I'm just trying to better understand what state/local regulators are requiring these days; that has often been a lot less than "best practice."

Paul T

I am currently working for a MAJOR manufacturer of electrical equipment. In the past five weeks I have not seen a NFPA manual or heard it mentioned. But then, what I do is mostly cookie cutter.

CT782 said:

The NFPA 79 2007 edition will be adopted with the next revision of the NEC.

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Adoption of NFPA79 has nothing to do with the adoption or edition of NFPA70 (the NEC). Are you just commenting that a fine print note in the new NEC will refer to the new NFPA79 or, do you have other inside information?

As far as OSHA goes, they often use their "General Duty" which basically says you have the general obligation to protect your employees from known hazards. One way OSHA know that what hazards exist is to look at generally accepted industry standards such as the NEC, NFPA70E, and NFPA79. This way they do not have to continually update their regulations everytime a new version of an industry standard is released. While I have never heard of OSHA citing NFPA79, I would not want to be the first.

I think I posted this but will provide again.

You can go here and view the code books:
http://www.nfpa.org/aboutthecodes/list_of_codes_and_standards.asp

I am an end user and I build my own panels. I build them to the 79 code and our upcoming panels will be built with that and the UL508.