Electrical Maintenance Skills

ELECTRICAL MAINTENANCE SKILLS
COURSE 110: 12 DAYS
This course is designed to provide basic electrical skills to those who need to perform first-line electrical maintenance tasks - including the safe isolation, replacement and testing of a range of common electrical devices (motors, sensors, heating elements, solenoids, etc.) - in a safe and effective manner. Importantly, the format of the course is specifically designed so that, when combined with suitable on-site consolidation of training, it will assist the maintenance manager in meeting the legal requirements for employee competence in electrical work.
PARTICIPANTS
No prior electrical knowledge is assumed. The structure and content of the course is aimed at those who currently fulfil a maintenance role, for example mechanical fitters. Many companies use this course to help introduce flexibility to their workforce, as part of a multiskilling programme.

Candidates with previous electrical experience (for example instrument engineers, electronics engineers, or those that have gained the necessary knowledge of electrical principles from elsewhere can attend a shortened version of this course COURSE PRESENTATION
The course has an extensive 'hands-on' practical approach, placing emphasis on safe working practice and on the development of useful, practical skills. Comprehensive course notes are provided. COURSE OBJECTIVES
On completion of the course, participants will be able to

• practice safe working methods on electrical systems
• understand the relevant regulative requirements
• demonstrate an understanding of electrical principles and units
• identify a wide range of electrical equipment & devices and understand their principles of operation / connections
• understand the principles of earthing / protection and associated protective devices
• demonstrate an understanding of electrical systems, switchgear and circuit types
• work with a range of cable types and carry out correct terminations and connections
• recognise the most common industrial motor types and understand their operation, connections and maintenance requirements
• use electrical test equipment effectively and carry out testing of a range of motors, solenoids, cables, etc. (using insulation, continuity, tong testers, etc.)
• identify motor and power circuit faults
• use circuit diagrams as an aid to maintenance
• take precautions when resetting overloads etc
• perform electrical isolation, testing for dead, etc on a wide range of devices and circuits safely.

Successful completion of the course leads to the award of Amicus / Technical Training Solutions competence certificate 110: Electrical Maintenance Skills. This course is particularly suitable for our on-site consolidation scheme, which enables candidates to practice their newly acquired skills in the workplace. For more information on the scheme, please contact us. What do candidates on the electrical maintenance skills course actually do?
During Week 1 of the course, candidates learn about basic electrical principles. This grounding in the fundamental concepts ensures a full understanding of the technical and safety issues in the later stages of the course.
Candidates learn in a practical way about ohm's law, series and parallel circuits etc, seeing at first hand what the relationships are between voltage, current and resistance. We ensure that this part of the course is kept interesting and relevant to the objectives of the course by avoiding any unnecessary theory and introducing some commonly-used industrial components, whilst using multimeters to make measurements, exploring the basic electrical principles as they go.
To achieve this we have constructed exercise boards with industrial switches, sensors, relays, contactors etc so that they can build circuits. make measurements using digital multimeters, gain familiarity with the components and learn about the principles in a structured, interesting and enjoyable way.

In Week 2 they build on the fundamentals by learning about electrical dangers and protection methods; the principles of earthing, the effects of electric shock, fuses, circuit breakers, RCDs and other related issues. They also learn about the Electricity at Work (EAW) Regulations and how these might affect their future work - exploring issues like live-working, competency, etc.
We teach them the right way to prepare and terminate cables into plugs and sockets, how to use professional crimp tools to crimp conductors properly, and whilst doing this we can ensure that they are able to use the relevant tools correctly.
They also learn why and how to use insulation and continuity testers, for which we have developed simulation units so that once they are able to use the testers properly to check cables, accessories and current-using equipment, they then apply their skills to finding open circuits, short circuits and insulation breakdowns within specially constructed test circuits. This allows them to gain some basic electrical faultfinding skills, developing their skills and understanding of the fundamentals further.
We then teach the candidates about three-phase motors: how they work, identification features, terminal configuration, testing, etc, whilst using their knowledge of voltage, current and resistance to understand the principles of induction. In Week 3 we then introduce industrial control panels with DIN-rail mounted components like MCBs, fuses, contactors, overload relays, timers, switches and lamps. The candidates build some basic industrial electrical circuits - for example from simple DOL to star/delta starters - giving them the experience of recognising each of the components, their markings and terminal identifications, the differences between the load and control circuits etc, in an engaging way that they really enjoy. The candidates can then (before connecting these circuits up to our custom-manufactured 3-phase 40 Volt motors) inspect and test their prepared units, ensuring that the circuits have been interpreted correctly. We have developed a three phase 40-volt ac supply to power these systems so that all this can be done safely. Candidates are then presented with various scenarios, to which they apply their knowledge of how a safe isolation should be performed on a practical working electrical circuit.