Effective Design and Testing of Portable Equipotential Zone Mats

Abstract

To protect safety of electrical workers, this paper presents an effective design concept of portable equipotential zone mats. The proposed mats can create a safe work area by enabling bonding with energized equipment, and thus, providing an equipotential zone for electrical workers who may be exposed to electrical potential differences. The proposed mats also offer the portability, and it is convenient to transport the mats to remote areas and set-up at worksites. Two sizes of mats are designed, built and tested in this paper. To evaluate their performance, the two mats have passed type tests according to the latest revision of ASTM standard F2715. The testing procedure and results for the two mats are demonstrated in the paper.