Protecting your workers is always a critical component of operating your business. Even in ideal situations, critical errors can occur that expose workers to injuries. Grounding equipment is a core component of your strategy to mitigate these risks and protect your team.
At Divergent Alliance, we offer comprehensive grounding equipment to cover all of the risks you face, ensuring proper safety. Take a look at what grounding equipment should make up your safety strategy.
Personal Protective Grounding Equipment
For linemen working on electrical systems, personal protective grounding equipment provides a way to safeguard lives by minimizing risks. This equipment includes a combination of grounding cables, ferrules, and clamps specifically designed to enhance electrical safety.
These grounding components work together to develop a low-impedance path for fault currents. As a result, if there is an accidental electrical discharge, it is redirected safely away from the worker. As a result, your personal protective grounding equipment must be selected specifically for this task, and it should meet the right rating for effective protection.
In most situations, the following grounding components make up your safety strategy. You can purchase them individually to build your own assembly. You can also purchase the assembly ready to go if you want a straightforward solution for getting the right tools in place.
Grounding Clamps
Grounding clamps are a core component of your lineman’s safety tools. They create a secure, low-resistance connection to enable grounding in electrical systems. What makes them specifically beneficial is that they are designed for high-voltage applications. This provides the highest level of protection by creating a path that diverts electricity away from the linemen.
Grounding Cables
Your grounding cables are just as important. They should be designed specifically for this task. When in place, they provide a low-resistance path for electricity to flow to the earth. That protects equipment, but most importantly, protects your employees as well. Grounding wires are often bare copper or have green or green and yellow insulation. They connect to the electrical system at various points. Properly installed, they are a reliable resource for moving current away from a person.
Grounding Ferrules
A grounding ferrule is a type of metal sleeve that is made of tin-plated copper. It is used in an electrical grounding application to create a secure and strong connection between the grounding cables and the terminals. This enhances safety overall. They tend to be critical when there are stranded wires, as they help to avoid breakage or fraying.
Grounding Assemblies
One of the options you have for simplifying this process is to purchase a grounding assembly. This is the complete setup of grounding components necessary to protect linemen. In short, it contains the tools necessary to create that low-resistance path for stray electrical currents to flow into the earth.
Your grounding assemblies will include the cables, ferrules, and clamps necessary for the process, as well as other connection devices, depending on what you select. Each component is critical, and every component should be in good working condition to protect your team.
How Your Grounding Equipment Works
Grounding cables and ferrules will provide a low-impedance path for the current to flow to the grounded circuit. Ensure that the ferrules and cables you select have a withstand rating for fault current and their length. The grounding head is the only connection necessary from the grounding system to the electrical circuit. Grounding heads, like cables, must be rated to withstand the available fault current for the entire fault event.
Quality matters. When choosing your grounding equipment, pay attention to what you are buying and who you’re buying it from. Your ground assembly can only work as effectively as the weakest connection in the system.
Inspect and Maintain Grounding Assemblies
Knowing what to include in your grounding equipment is just the start of providing and ensuring safety for your lineman. You also need to inspect and maintain these components on an ongoing basis. Regular inspections should happen on a very frequent basis, even every time you send a team out. Look for any signs of damage such as:
- Cable damage or wear
- Wear on the clamps
- Ineffective or loose connections
- Dust or debris buildup
- Any area of fraying
These types of concerns can lead to critical risks and accidents. A visual inspection should happen as you send each team member out.
Replace any equipment that is in poor condition without attempting to use it. This should include:
- Cable that is flat, kinked in any way, or cut
- Broken cable strands located at the connection points
- Swollen cable jackets that can sometimes have soft spots, an indication of interior corrosion
- Clamp jaw wear
- Tightening bolt, bare or damaged
If you notice any of these indications, do not use or rely on the ground assembly. Replace them with safer options. Doing so could save the life of your lineman.
How Divergent Alliance Can Help You
You know the importance of grounding equipment. You now know that maintaining these systems is just as important as buying the right product. Divergent Alliance, a veteran-owned company, can help you with equipment servicing. With an experienced IBEW workforce and the necessary grounding components you need, you can get your system in place right away and know your team is safeguarded.
If you have not had your grounding assembly inspected in the last year, contact our team to take a closer look at it. We recommend routing maintenance and upkeep to ensure the assembly works as expected if there is a need to do so. With regular inspections and maintenance programs, including through Divergent Alliance, you can trust your team will be safe.
Reach Out Now for Grounding Equipment
With over 200 years of experience, our veteran-owned and operated company knows the importance of trust and superior workmanship. Let us help you ensure your grounding equipment is always properly selected and in good working order to protect your team.Contact Divergent Alliance to learn more about how we can help you. We aim to offer the highest level of standards, ensuring our utility partners are always getting the very best level of safety for their needs. Take a closer look at the solutions and services we offer that can safeguard your needs.