Posted By Sally
You really have no option but to rewire. Surely this would be at no cost (other than time) to your company as the mistake is the suppliers.

The potential problems with not rewiring could be immense. Even if you do what you suggest at train maintenance staff accordingly what will happen in five years time when staff change. Can you be sure that someone will remember to tell new staff? or that at crucial moments your staff will all remember.

My last thought would be could you imagine trying to explain to a judge that you knew the colour coding was wrong but didn't change it.

Posted By Tony Gladman
Presumably the installation hasn't been and can't be certificated, so surely its down to the installer to rectify.
I had a similar problem on a control panel for a boiler plane room.
The contractors returned to site and sleeved the incorrect cables in the junction boxes with the correct coloured sleeving.
TG

Posted By AlB
David,

I've just come accross that date in the IEE Regs amendment, but the problem now is that the supplier's wiring will connect to our wiring, which conforms to the new harmonised colouring, therefore we are using two different colours in the same system. In addition to this, the supplier's cables don't conform to the old wiring colours of red, yellow and blue for live connections and black for neutral, so it's an additional problem.

Does anyone know if the harmonised colour coding is an EU directive? If so, this company should have the same wiring as ourselves?

Posted By Frank Hallett
You've got it in AIB!

The only recourse that you will have is via the contract. If the actual standard wasn't clearly specified, it'll be down to you.

Frank Hallett

Posted By Barry Atril
A common practise in domestic lightig is to use the Flat twin and earth cable for the switch. As such both conductors are live. To get over the problem the neutral is sleeved at the terminal with the approiate colour sleeving. Also the earth is sleeved only at the terminal.
Would this not be an aceptable comprise to sleeve the wires at the terminals as clearly your companey has no intentions of taking this machine out of service for rewiring.
On a similar note these wire colour changes are going to cause havoc because both system are going to be around for a long time yet. I have aready seen electricians trying to connect a black live wire to neutral. I don't think the label on the door of the distrubution box currently being used does it.

Posted By Mike Draper
AlB

I gather from your note that the incorrectly coloured wiring is in association with the equipment and not part of the fixed installation. I also gather from your note that the equipment is new and I presume some form of machinery? If so, I presume that it is being supplied CE marked?

Well if so, the supplier is currently in complete breach of their obligations under the machinery directive. One of the standards that may be used as a reference to establish conformity against the requirements of the machinery directive is BS EN 60204-1:1998 Electrical parts of machines, a normative reference in both BS EN 292 (now obsolete) and BS EN ISO 12100.

Clause 14.2 of 60204 defines the requirements for the identification of conductors and sub-clause 14.2.3 reads as follows:

14.2.3 Identification of the neutral conductor
Where a circuit includes a neutral conductor identified by colour, the colour shall be LIGHT BLUE (see 3.1.2 of IEC 60446). LIGHT BLUE shall not be used for identifying any other conductor where confusion is possible.

This they have not done and therefore they cannot claim conformity through the application of standards by reference to BS EN 292, BS EN ISO 12100 or BS EN 60204. They must therefore prove that the equipment directly meets the EHSR's of the relevant directives, which as far as I can tell they cannot do in this case.

If I were you I would point this out politely to the supplier and request their earliest attendance to put the matter right at their expense, as they are currently in breach of their duties under the Directive. You might also want to think about referring the matter to the DTI as this is a gross error which could lead to someone suffering serious injury on other equipment that they may have supplied in the past or that they may supply in the future.

Mike

Posted By Mike Draper
AlB

As I understand your problem, there are two parts to your electrical system; the fixed installation and the wiring within the equipment.

The fixed installation - Generally installed in accordance with BS 7671 with the colour coding of the wiring matching the new requirements, i.e. blue = neutral. This was changed from the old arrangement where black was neutral in response to the introduction of a harmonised european colour coding scheme. There is a transitional arrangement until the end of March this year which would make it acceptable for a fixed installation installed before then, to use either the new colour coding or the old colour coding. This only applies to fixed installations.

From what you have said so far, your new installation conforms to the new code - so no problem there.

Wiring within the equipment - here the specific rules on wiring have been in place since BS EN 60204 was introduced in the late 1990's (and I think there was an earlier standard too), which specifically makes blue the neutral conductor. As an equipment supplier, they need to match 60204 to be able to CE mark to the machinery directive using the standards route.

This has not changed since its introduction and has no relationship to the changes to fixed installations. Indeed if you think about it, the changes to requirements for fixed installations have only brought them in to line with what has been common practice for equipment/appliances for many years.

Demonstrating compliance by any route other than manufacture to EN standards is extremely difficult, costly and ultimately risk laden, particularly on something as simple as wiring.

Your equipment supplier is at fault and as I said should perhaps be referred to the DTI.

Mike