Temp for Personal Protection 1

[PlantEng]

At what temperature is insulation required on pipes/equipment for personal protection. We use 120F but do not know the source. OSHA says they can fine you if someone gets hurt but will not commit to a temperature. They refer you to a Chemical Engineering Magazine article that is out of print. We have seen 65C in military journals. Any guesses as to the source of the magical number.

 

[IRstuff]

65 C is the established military specification as to maximum temperature that an external surface is allowed due to possibility of skin burns.

Not sure where these guys got their data, but it seems reasonably consistent:

http://www.cqc.state.ny.us/estime.htm

TTFN

 

[IRstuff]

another data point:

http://www.burncare.org/scaldtable.html

TTFN

 

[tkordyban]

Check out UL 1950 or UL 60950 (Underwriters Labs) standard. These are
specifically for electronics boxes, but the principle is the same. It gives different
max temperatures for different materials, and depending on how long you might
touch them. Metal surfaces that you have to hold with your fingers for a long time, like
control knobs, can't be higher than 55C. Glass and plastic limits are higher (65 and 75C, respectively.) Surfaces that you might just brush up against have different limits: 70C for metal, 80C for glass and 95C for plastic.

Metals, because of their good conductivity, can cause burns at lower temperatures than thermal insulators, like plastic or wood. You might have experienced this yourself when sitting on a wood bench that is held together with metal bolts. The whole bench that was sitting in the sun is all at one temperature, but it's the bold head that burns your bare leg.