Touch safe office equipment testing

[Dave A]

I've got a client that seeks regular testing of their electric/electronic office equipment to ensure it is touch-safe (no or limited risk of electrical shock).

My questions are:
What would be the appropriate tests for this?
Are there relevant standards that need to be met?

I've got a sneaking suspicion that testing for continuity of something like the equipemt's metal chassis back to the main earth point of the installation isn't always going to help, and testing for earth-to-touchable-metals voltage might not always be reliable either.

Any thoughts?

[AndyD]

Firstly only class I IEC protection appliances would need to be tested for 'touch-safe'. Many office appliances are class 0 or more likely class II with no earthable chassis.

The easiest way to perform this type of testing is with a portable appliance tester. The tester often has a fly lead which clips onto the exposed chassis and the appliance being tested also plugs into the tester. Insulation and earth resistance readings will be recoreded for each appliance and the customer can be given a print out with the results and the date etc.

The unit I use is a Robin which is over 12 years old now and I would highly recommend. It's the older version of this one.