Australian Standards...

Hello,

We are about to quote a system that is going to Australia.

Anyone have a good cross reference between European standards and Australian for below:

Australian Standards
Standard No. Title
AS 1531 Conductors - Bare Overhead -- Aluminium and Aluminium Alloy
AS 2700 Colour Standards for General Purposes
AS 3607 Conductors - Bare Overhead, Aluminium And Aluminium Alloy - Steel
Reinforced
AS 3808 Insulators - Porcelain and Glass, Pin and Shackle Type - Voltages not
Exceeding 1000 V a.c.
AS 3822 Test Methods for Bare Overhead Conductors
AS 3863 Galvanized Mild Steel Wire for Armouring Cables
AS 5000 Electric Cables - Polymeric Insulated - for Working Voltages up to and
Including 0.6/1 (1.2) kV
AS/NZS 1429 Electric cables - Polymeric Insulated - for Working Voltages
AS/NZS 3000 Electrical Installations (known as the Australian/New Zealand Wiring Rules)
AS.NZS 3191 Electric Flexible Cords

When we have built control cabinets to Australia and New Zealand they have specified what they wan't to "add" to our standard. The most important for us was that they wanted the wires to be rated for 500V, that ment we had to use 1,5mm2 wires instead of our usuall 1mm2. I think that they also wanted RCD on socket outlets and the colors on the wires to be their standard.

the cable rating should be 600V as the RMS voltage is (Phase to Phase) 415~440V
note; Peak is about 600v - hence the rating
normally 1.0mm is Ok but the company you are dealing with prefers 1.5mm
This could be for control wiring specs. only.
Check with the company because %90 of control wiring is either 24vDC and/or might include 24vAC (ELV - Extra Low Voltage)
All cable sizes for (LV - Low Voltage) are specified in AS 3008 - this is not an easy spec to read for the uninitiated.

Every company has different requirements - very hard to generally answer

When I worked in the Atlantic Salmon Industry(Tasmania Australia) , I found that Machinery/Control panels etc that came from Scandinavia had standards about the same as A.S.
Unless the client specifies different just go with EU standards,
Most Aus cables have 600/1000v insulation including 1mm, I would be surprised if your cables differ??

alhughes said:

When I worked in the Atlantic Salmon Industry(Tasmania Australia) , I found that Machinery/Control panels etc that came from Scandinavia had standards about the same as A.S.
Unless the client specifies different just go with EU standards,
Most Aus cables have 600/1000v insulation including 1mm, I would be surprised if your cables differ??

Click to expand...

It's the wires inside the control cabinet I was talking about and 1mm2 are not 600/1000V. Not the ones I use eitherway

alhughes said:

When I worked in the Atlantic Salmon Industry(Tasmania Australia) , I found that Machinery/Control panels etc that came from Scandinavia had standards about the same as A.S.
Unless the client specifies different just go with EU standards,
Most Aus cables have 600/1000v insulation including 1mm, I would be surprised if your cables differ??

Click to expand...

Mate. Other countries have lower supply voltages so no 600/1000v insulation is not needed
Also
Green is an Active phase
Red in an earth

We follow some European standards not all

I have built panels for Russia.
Red yellow and green are feeders

In this case if you have a customer I would ask him if he like to add something to your current specifications. Usually they know (atleast my customers) what they want and the important requirements. We build control cabinets for all over the world and in 99.9% of the time it's fine with our standards. We rarely change something and most of the time it's just small things. If we point out to the customer that it will come with a price to have certain changes made (diffrent color wiring etc) they will often satisfy with what we got.

All cables should be rated @ 600/1000 volts. Earth is green/yellow stripe. Green and yellow are not allowed to be used as power cables. The three phases are red, white, blue, neutral is black. Flexible cords are blue, brown, yellow/green stripe.
Generally aluminium cables are avoided at all costs - copper rules. Too many problems with chemical reactions with aluminium cables - I have not used them at all for over 20 years. NEVER will again - too many problems!
Generally AS/NZS rules follow IEC - US stuff is generally shunned here.
There are differences though between AS/NZS and IEC - you have to read the standards.
AS/NZS 3000 is probably the most relevant standard that you would require - it is humungous!
There are no standard colours for 24VAC or 24VDC cables. The most common colours are grey/black for 24VAC and orange/violet for 24VDC - active/positive the first colour. Plenty of other variations used as well.

By the way, earth terminals are illegal - you have to use an earth bar. Although many of us get away with them unless 'done' by the inspector and then you have to wire hard wired earth to each terminal - generally the common European earth terminals are not acceptable. We all use them though till caught!

I stand corrected,

I agree with you Bob, but, I doubt that any Inspector would realize when or If they look in a control Cabinet. Unless you physically trace the cables you would not see the issue
I don't like earths that are not solidly bonded to the Main Earth.
this would be the reason they are illegal.