What safe working practices protect children and the adults working with them?

Answer 1

· PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) - This is worn as it protects you from loss of eyesight and serious burns as the soldering iron heats to at least 200°C and this is by far enough to cause a serious burn.

· Armour - There is things called armour covering all wires and electrical appliances that are near the soldering station. This is necessary as the soldering iron is made of metal, it will conduct electricity, plus burning through wires will cost a lot of money to replace. However, if you burn through the wire you may electrocute yourself, and the armour prevents you from getting near live wires

· Double Insulated Wire - The wire is double insulated so that if you accidentally slip and catch the wire with the soldering iron it shouldn't burn through straight away and gives you enough time to pull away the iron before it burns through the wire and exposes live electrical wires.

· PAT Testing - Every electrical appliance that is put into any building (especially in schools) is PAT tested. This basically put a normal current through it to make sure that the appliance isn't faulty and if there is a fault with the product then the PAT test will show it.

· Fuses (3A/13A) - The use of a fuse in a circuit can be crucial when using a standard household supply as it is an AC current (Alternating Current) which means the amount of current coming into the appliances can vary at all times. However, if there is a power surge and the current dramatically rises, the fuse will protect all the electrical components that are present as it has a fuse rating (3A or 13A usually) and if the current peaks over the rating, the fuse will break the circuit and save all the other components.

· Step down transformers - A step down transformer will take the AC current and change it into a DC current (Direct current) and changes the voltage to what the appliance can run on, thus making the appliance work (e.g. the standard current coming from the national grid is 240V, and an appliance works at 10V, the step down transformer will make the voltage drop to 20V)

Circuit breaker (MCB) - This is found in nearly all new homes built and schools. This works by taking the current in the circuit (and in the same way a fuse does) and will break the circuit if the current peaks above its rating. However, it does more than a fuse as it will trigger a switch to turn the power to the household/school off. This protects the other electrical appliances in the house and you just go and turn the switch back on to initiate power again.