How safe are your industrial electrical technicians – Fluke 381 Clamp Meter

Recently I had a Fluke 381 come into the electrical lab for calibration. The thing that sets this apart from other clamp meters is the remote display, which I thought was pretty cool and instantly started to test its range, functionality etc. I easily walked around with the display covering all our offices etc while the clamp was sitting in the electrical lab measuring 20 volts AC it never dropped out.

After my initial “Wow this is pretty cool” (And sending pictures of it to all my sparky mates) I started to realize just how much of a game changer this is in regards to safety.

Imagine being able to measure almost any basic electrical function remotely while working in dangerous situations and this particular unit can measure up 2500 Amps via the “iFlex” coil. Who wants to hold onto something thats measuring 2500 Amps? NOT ME!!..

Having spent some time working at various industrial sites like Fonterra, STOS etc etc, I know they place a great deal of focus on safety and HAVE to do everything in their power to ensure everyone on site is safe and has every tool available to them to ensure this. I instantly thought this would make a huge difference on how permits are issued etc. Imagine you have to measure the inrush current draw when a motor starts up.
Now think about what sort of permit you will need to cater for someone to be near that motor holding a clamp meter to take one measurement. If you had a Fluke 381 you could simply say isolate the motor while I clamp my meter around the conductor then I will sit here in the control room with you while you start it up with zero chance of potentially coming into contact with either the dangerous moving parts that are associated with motors or the lethal current that could be present at the time of start up and running of said motor.

Of course the Fluke 381 also measures most other electrical functions as well so it could be used to measure voltages up 1000 volts AC and DC without having to be anywhere near the actual potential dangers…

I really do feel that if you or your company are serious about being safe while taking electrical measurements then you simply can’t look past one of these..I’d like to see every site/technician have one of these as there standard clamp meter.

Oh and it passed its calibration with ease and I took all the measurements with the display sitting on my desk not attached to the clamp. As expected..


Worth looking into.

http://www.fluke.com/fluke/tten/clamp-meters/fluke-381.htm?pid=70413