Lesson 1.4 — Your Armour: PPE & Test Equipment
AS/NZS 5732:2022 and the unit's assessment requirements are explicit: Class 0 electrical insulating gloves rated 1 000 V (IEC 60903), an Australian-standards-rated HV insulating mat, insulated tools, a CAT III-rated digital multimeter, and access to firefighting equipment. Gloves are your last line of defence and they are consumables: inflate-test them for pinholes before every single use, keep leather over-protectors on, store them flat and dark, and send them for dielectric retest every six months. A glove with one invisible pinhole is a conductor with a false sense of security wrapped around it.
Key points
- Glove ritual: visual check → air-inflate and listen/feel for leaks → check test-date stamp → wear with over-protectors
- CAT III meter rating matters: a CAT II meter can explode in your hand from a transient on a vehicle HV bus
- Insulating mat goes where you stand or lean during any live verification
- Barriers, cones and 'DANGER — HV WORK' signage make the whole car your controlled zone