An industry leader who has spent much of his professional career promoting Australian manufacturing, safety, and compliance with local Standards says it has never been more important than now for customers to be informed about why these are critical.
“A flood of change is sweeping over the LV Switchboard industry that will vitally affect our customers and their projects,” says Mina Shehata, Managing Director of RMS Manufacturing in Western Melbourne. This tide of change is already absorbing the attention of engineers and specifiers involved in products including:
- Provision for green energy in high-rise commercial, residential, and industrial construction projects,
- Transport electrification, and
- Achieving rising statutory safety and compliance Standards throughout infrastructure projects, including health and energy
Times of major change – extending from the present through to the decades ahead – can also be times of a major need for customer-focussed communication to overcome any confusion generated about the type of LV switchboard technology that does comply with requirements – rather than non-compliant switchboards that fail present and future necessities.
“Customers need open communication about the false value of being sucked into a race to the bottom on quality and price for non-compliant technologies. What value is a cheap non-compliant switchboard that will have to be upgraded or replaced at least, and possibly attract penalties for shortcomings that compromise on safety and compliance,” says Mina, who is strongly active in NESMA Victoria including as a member of the NESMA technical committee.
“NESMA is integral to getting the message out to the industry and the market that customers need to ask their suppliers for documentation of Standards compliance.
“Any reputable manufacturer will come back immediately with a full statement of compliance. If a manufacturer does not, or delays and prevaricates, that is a red flag straight away,” says Mina, who completed his electrical engineering qualifications at the RMIT before working as switchboard designer for a national company prior to gaining further experience that led to his founding RMS Switchboards 14 years ago.
Compliance and safety focus
“Open communication with customers has been a keynote since day one, both through our company and through our association with NESMA and raising awareness of major developments such as AS/NZS 61439, which has compiled all the testing procedures from other Standards into one place to make it much easier for design and verification for switchboard manufacturing.”
All switchboards must now be compliant to AS/NZS 61439, unless the board is rated for equal to or less than 125 Amps and it is short circuit fault rated equal to or less than 10kA.
Compliance makes so much sense for a host of reasons, including construction for local conditions and engineering to meet inspection and safety standards, says Mina.
“Curtailment of OH&S hazards is a priority for all major customer groups, whether resources and energy, construction and infrastructure development, or industrial, commercial and residential building. The message is being strongly advanced by groups that NESMA engages with, including major energy suppliers and electric vehicle providers, for which the expansion of electric vehicle uptake will require new switchboards to accommodate rapid heavy transport charging on the one hand, and facilities for domestic and workplace fleets on the other.”
RMS Manufacturing’s flexible approach
Types of switchboards offered by RMS include:
- Mild steel, aluminium or stainless steel
- Indoor or outdoor
- Single sided or double sided construction
- Fault level withstand up to 120KA
- Operational voltage up to 1000V AC
- Fixed, demountable and withdrawable options
- Top and/or bottom cable entries
RMS (the name implies a Quadratic mean = ∑ x 2 n.) reflects the company’s dynamic technologies evolved in the service of market leading projects, including those of Nestle and Bunnings, for example.
“We work hard to be at the leading edge of technologies and compliance required by our electrical contractor customers, so they can rely on us to do the thinking, planning, and designing of the right switchboard technology for their needs. This takes a weight of responsibility onto our expertise, which they appreciate. We ensure project timelines are met, industry standards are exceeded, longevity, safety, and reliability expectations are achieved, both capital and operational costs are minimised, all the while making our customer’s lives easy.
“Flexibility is our approach. Our vertically integrated purpose-built facility gives us greater control over the dynamic needs of our customers. We know we don’t know it all, but we see challenges as creating opportunity. Our success is not an accident, it’s a choice. We embrace challenges with a ‘how to’ approach.”
