ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades Fragile sockets.

Figures... I always wind up buying the heavy-duty industrial stuff....

Can you imagine hooking one of these up to a little table lamp? Talk about overkill.

Well, industrial is not exactly the right term. Industrial appliances either use blue CEE plugs or really heavy Schuko plugs made out of real black rubber.
The plug you once posted a pic of, the one with the soft white plastic shell is more like a plug for garden tools, your lawnmower cord and light construction stuff. For example I've seen wuite a lot of small sanders refitted with those plugs. I've got only one of them, I got it attched to a string of christmas lights. Boy, that looked weird! Especially since the genius wired it like this: Attach strip connector to light string. Hook up 2 30cm pieces of purple 1,5mm2 solid wire intended for use in conduit to strip connector and connect plug to the plug. Don't even bother to use the plug's strain relief or tape the connection. I refitted the old ungrounded plug that still lay in the box. Otherwise I mostly got used stuff from times long gone, really solid stuff, and new construction grade stuff for lawnmower cord and construction stuff (I do lots of DIY, for floor sanders, rotary hammer and similar appliances you can use a good construction grade heavy rubber extension cord).

Have you seen a table lamp with thin zip-cord wired to a 15A BS546 plug? Now that really looks like overkill.....

For a size comparision BS546 is almost as bulky as a blue CEEform plug and the line and neutral pins are the size of the CEEform ground pin. The ground pin is bigger again.

I've seen one attached to a handheld blender. It was 50% the size of the applience!!!

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On another point, it's more and more common to only have CEEform (blue) outlets in commercial kitchens here so it's not too unusual to see a little braun hand blender or other kitchen gagets with a huge blue industrial plug on the end!

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The Regs in industrial/commercial situations are getting tougher and tougher.
E.g. BS546 15A was the norm in theaters here for many years. However, because of HSA regulations only CEEform is acceptable now.
Many dimmer units etc come with BS546 sockets so it's now standard practice to wire them like this:

BS546 permanently connected to a short cable leading to a trailing socket and CEEform (blue) from there. This means that operatives normally never have to deal with anything other than CEEform.
All theater lighting rigs are now blue ceeform too, no BS546 stuff allowed.

[This message has been edited by djk (edited 10-03-2003).]

Did the Irish authorities give a reason for banning BS546 in theatre lighting?

BS546 certainly remained the norm for such use here, and as far as I'm aware it's still widely employed in theatres.

You should visit South Africa sometime where everything hangs on one of these! They look perfectly normal after a while.

A lot of my 240V gear here in the US is still on these because I have not come across any 240V power strips, besides which all these plugs are paid for!

Here's the front of my bench: 240V left, 120V right:



[This message has been edited by Hutch (edited 10-03-2003).]

[This message has been edited by Hutch (edited 11-01-2003).]

There is a simple reason:
Only 2 types of sockets / plugs are recognised by Irish Standards (IS)

IS/EN60309 Ceeform
IS 401 which is BS1363 (Restricted to Domestic, office and similar uses)

BS546 and CEE 7/IV (Schuko) are only mentioned in legislation here to make sure that any plugs/sockets sold as replacements for legacy use conform to the latest BS or DIN or CEE specs as appropriate.

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The HSA (Health and Safety Athority) would deem BS546 unusuable as it doesn't recognise the standard and it would not be able to get certification on how it would perform mechanically if for example it was hit by a peice of lighting rigging.. How it would cope with damp etc.. As a connector it's designed primariy for domestic use.


Under HSA rules, Health and Safety at Work Act etc Irish standards and ETCI wiring rules must be complied with otherwise in an accident the employer is fully liable etc.. and the HSA could take legal action for breeches too.

It would be illegal to use BS1363 or Schuko too.

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IS/EN60309 is starting to appear all over the place.

Outdoor christmas lights
Garden / patio sockets

Trailing extensions for commercial cleaning equipment.

IS401 fused plug feeding 16 Amp IS/EN60309 trailing sockets / reels etc for polishers, vacuums etc etc.


[This message has been edited by djk (edited 10-04-2003).]

It sounds as though the Irish HSA is getting every bit as persnickety as the British HSE (Health & Safety Executive).

As bulky as BS546 15A connectors are, the 16A CEEform types are huge for such use. For individual lights up to 1kW or so the BS546 system at least offers the much smaller 5A versions, and on all the theatre lighting I've been involved with we used a mixture of 5 and 15A connectors.

Paul, probably the Irish HSA doesn't want people using BS546 plugs in theatres because some of them are quite fragile.

Just like the domestic (cheap) BS-1363 plugs, some BS-546 are made out of the brittle thermoset plastics.

Of course, I've seen heavy duty rubber BS-1363 plugs from MK and others...but they're expensive -- like two or three quid versus a few pence for a no-name "domestic" plug to a pound and change for an MK type.

The Ceeform stuff is a lot cheaper and a whole lot more flexible in terms of what's available.

Also, the normal IP 44 version isn't all that bulky in compairson to BS546 (15A). The higher IP versions that are often seen outdoors where they're exposed to rain are a lot bulkier looking.

Sven:

I've heard stories of people getting shocked by BS546 plugs in these situations. E.g. a guy puts his hand up into rigging to remove a plug that's out of view which has been cracked by being hit/dropped.

A lot of theater equipment has somehow escaped the wrath of the HSA until relatively recently. There were some truely disgraceful installations out there. They're not only concerned about electrical safety mechanical issues come into it too. Lights / rigging have to be safe.

I have never seen the 5A version in use in theatre over here btw.