Commonly used electrician tools
Here are some tools that electricians often use. When installing and repairing electrical equipment and lines, it is necessary to correctly select and use electrician tools.
Commonly used electrician tools
Non-contact Voltage Tester
Digital Voltage Tester
Voltage Tester With Plastic Handle
Anti-flare High Voltage Electric Tester
Soldering Iron
Electrical Tape
Aluminium Alloy Flashlight
18-LED Li-lon Portable Worklight
Commonly used basic electrician tools (materials) mainly include the following:
1. Flat-nosed pliers (needle-nosed pliers)
Used to clamp and fix wires, cables, etc. Because the pliers of the needle-nosed pliers are slender, they can work in narrow places, such as lamp holders, wire ends in switches, etc. The needle-nosed pliers are mainly composed of pliers heads, pliers handles and insulating sleeves. The appearance structure of the needle-nosed pliers is shown in the figure.
The material of the needle-nosed pliers for electricians is generally 45# steel, with appropriate toughness and hardness. The pliers handle is covered with an insulating sleeve with a rated voltage of 500V. There are many types of needle-nosed pliers, which can be roughly divided into two categories: with blades and without blades.
2. Screwdriver
Used to tighten and loosen screws, nuts and other connectors. Screwdrivers are also called "screwdrivers" and screwdrivers. They are tools used to remove or tighten screws. Screwdrivers can be divided into two types: flat-blade screwdrivers and cross-blade screwdrivers, and their appearance is shown in the figure.
3. Wire strippers
It is one of the commonly used tools for internal electricians, motor repairers, and instrumentation electricians. It is specially used to strip the surface insulation layer of the wire head.
Remove the insulation layer of the wire to make connection and wiring work. The wire stripper is mainly composed of a pliers head and a pliers handle.
How to use:
1. Choose the corresponding wire stripping blade according to the thickness of the cable.
2. Place the prepared cable in the middle of the blade of the wire stripper and choose the length to be stripped.
3. Hold the handle of the wire stripper, clamp the cable, and slowly apply force to slowly peel off the outer skin of the cable.
4. Loosen the handle and take out the cable. At this time, the cable metal is neatly exposed, and the rest of the insulating plastic is intact.
4. Wire cutters
Also known as flat-nose pliers and vises, they are mainly used to clamp or break metal sheets, cut metal wires, etc. The handle of the wire cutters used by electricians must be covered with an insulating tube with a voltage resistance of more than 500V. Wire cutters are mainly composed of pliers heads, pliers handles and insulating sleeves. The appearance of wire cutters is shown in the figure.
The teeth can be used to replace wrenches to tighten nuts, lift nails, clamp and pull cylindrical metal parts, etc.; the blade can be used to cut steel wire, iron wire, copper wire and other metal wires.
When using wire cutters, you should pay attention to the following:
1. Before use, you must check whether the insulating sleeve on the handle of the wire cutters is damaged and whether the insulation condition of the insulating sleeve is good. If the insulating sleeve is damaged, you must not work with electricity to avoid safety accidents.
2. When operating with electricity, keep your hand more than 2cm away from the metal part of the wire cutters. When cutting live wires, you must do it one by one, and you cannot cut two wires at the same time to avoid short circuit accidents.
3. Do not damage the insulating handle when using wire cutters. Do not use wire cutters as hammers. Pay attention to moisture-proof. If there is water or moisture on the wire cutters, do not work with electricity.
4. When cutting, make the blade of the wire cutters face yourself to control the cutting part.
5. Pay attention to maintenance. To prevent rust, you should often oil the pliers shaft of the wire cutters.
Diagonal pliers: mainly used to cut excess leads of wires and components, and are often used to replace general scissors to cut insulating sleeves, nylon cable clips, etc.
Use pliers within your ability. Do not use them to cut steel wires, wire ropes or overly thick copper wires and iron wires to avoid breaking teeth and damage to the pliers.
5. Electrician's knife
Used to cut wires or strip the insulation layer of cables. Electrician's knife is a wire stripping tool, mainly composed of a blade and a handle. When the electrician's knife is not in use, the blade should be retracted into the handle.
The insulation layer on the wire should be stripped before the wire joint. When cutting and stripping with an electrician's knife, the blade must not hurt the wire core. The blade of the electrician's knife must be sharpened to strip the wire, but it should not be too sharp, which can easily cut the wire core.
6. Test pen
I am talking about the use of low-voltage lines. Low-voltage test pens are used to test whether wires, electrical appliances and electrical circuits are energized, with a detection range of 60 to 500V. The test pens we see in daily life are of two types: screwdriver type and pen type, which are mainly composed of neon tubes, resistors, springs and pen bodies.
The test pen contains neon bulbs and current-limiting resistors. When the test pen is used to test the charged body, the current forms a power circuit through the charged body, current-limiting resistor and neon bulb, human body to the earth. As long as the potential difference between the charged body and the earth exceeds 60V, the neon tube in the test pen will light up. The test voltage range of the low-voltage test pen is 60 to 500V.
Note: When using, your fingers must touch the metal pen hanger (pen type) or the metal screw on the top of the test pen (screwdriver type).
When using the test pen, use your fingers to touch the metal body at the end of the pen so that the backlight of the small window of the neon tube is facing you.
When checking for faults with a test pen, proceed from the power supply side to the load side in sequence in the main circuit. In the control circuit, the test should be conducted from the power supply to the electromagnetic coil. In the detection and analysis, attention should be paid to the possibility that the power supply returns from the other end of the coil.
The test pen only needs a very small current to make the neon tube light up. Generally, leakage current caused by poor insulation and placing the neon bulb near a strong electric field can make the neon bulb light up. These situations should be distinguished from whether the circuit being tested is actually powered.
In addition to being used to test the live wire and the neutral wire (ground wire), the test pen has the following uses:
(1) Distinguish direct current from alternating current. When alternating current passes through the test pen, the two poles in the neon tube will light up at the same time; when direct current passes through the test pen, only one of the two electrodes in the neon tube will light up.
(2) Distinguish the positive and negative poles of direct current. Connect the test pen between the positive and negative poles of the direct current circuit. The end of the neon tube that lights up is the negative pole of the direct current.
(3) Distinguish the voltage level. During the test, the voltage level can be estimated based on the intensity of the neon tube's light.
(4) Check if the phase line touches the shell. Touch the housing of the electrical equipment with a test pen. If the neon tube lights up, it means that the phase line is touching the housing, the housing is not properly grounded or grounded properly.
VII. Test lamp
The test lamp is also called a calibration lamp or a test lamp. The test lamp can be used to check whether the voltage of the circuit is normal, whether the circuit is open or has poor contact.
The test lamp is a simple and intuitive test tool made by electrical repair personnel. There are two commonly used types: one uses AC power supply, consisting of a lamp holder, a bulb, two wires and two test pens; the other uses batteries as power supply, with one or several dry batteries and small electric beads connected in series between the two test pens.
(1) AC test lamp
The AC test lamp can be used to check the 220V power supply voltage, the on/off of the circuit, the on/off of the internal circuit of the electrical component, and whether the electrical component is connected to the ground. For safety reasons, a protective cover is usually installed on the 220V bulb. When checking, connect the test lamp to the power socket. If the light does not light up, there is no power in the socket. If the light is on, the power supply voltage can be judged from the brightness of the light. If it is on, it means that the power supply voltage is sufficient; if it is dark, it means that the power supply voltage is insufficient.
After the power is turned on, connect the test light to different parts of the circuit to know whether the power line is conductive, whether the circuit contacts are normal, and whether various switches are normally connected. For single electrical components, connect the test light in series to a lead wire and then connect it to the mains power supply. The brightness of the light bulb can be used to determine whether the internal circuit of the electrical component is conductive. If the brightness of the test light connected in series to the switch decreases, the switch contact is poor; if the brightness of the test light connected in series to the electrical load (such as the winding) decreases, it is normal.
For electrical components or electrical appliances that use the mains as a power source, you can also use a test light to check whether the electrical component or electrical appliance is connected to the ground. The inspection method is to connect the test light between the outer casing and the ground. If the light bulb continues to light up, it is a short-circuit leakage, that is, connected to the ground. The brighter the light bulb, the more serious the ground connection.
(2) Battery test light
Battery light is also called a check light. It is composed of two No. 1 batteries and a 2.5V small electric bead for a flashlight, which can be used to check the continuity and wire number of the circuit.
The battery test light can also be used to check the continuity/disconnection of the (unpowered) circuit, the continuity/disconnection of the internal circuit of the electrical component, and whether the load component is connected to the ground. When using it, the test light should be connected to the loop state. If the test light is on, the circuit or electrical component is connected, or the electrical component is connected to the ground. It should be noted that when using the battery test light to check the circuit, the circuit cannot be connected to 220V AC.
If there is an inductor element in series in the circuit (such as the coil of a contactor or relay), if the battery light is used for testing, the inductor element should be isolated from the circuit to be tested to prevent the tester from feeling numb and electric shock due to excessive self-induced electromotive force at the moment of power on.
When using the test light, pay attention to the voltage of the bulb and the voltage of the tested part. If the voltage difference is too high, the bulb will burn out, and if the difference is too low, the bulb will not light up.
Generally, when using a test lamp to find faults, a smaller capacity bulb should be used; when using it to find faults caused by poor contact, a larger capacity bulb (150-200W) should be used. In this way, the fault situation can be analyzed according to the brightness and darkness of the bulb.
When checking the voltage of a 380V line, two 220V lights can be connected in series to make a test lamp.
7. Electric soldering iron
The electric soldering iron is the main tool for manual welding. Commonly used electric soldering irons are generally direct heating type, which are divided into three categories: external heating type, internal heating type and constant temperature type. The appearance of the electric soldering iron and the structure of the external heating electric soldering iron are shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7 The appearance and structure of the electric soldering iron
The working steps of using an electric soldering iron are: prepare for welding → heat the weldment → feed the welding wire → remove the welding wire → remove the soldering iron.
The adjustable wrench is called a wrench for short, and is a tool used to tighten and loosen nuts. You can choose a wrench of the corresponding size according to the actual work needs.
Cable stripping tool: used to remove cable insulation and sheathing.
Oscilloscope: used to observe and analyze the signal waveform of current and voltage changing over time.
Multimeter: used to measure parameters such as resistance, current, voltage, etc., and has multiple measurement functions.
Short-circuit wire: used to short-circuit two circuits or devices for testing or troubleshooting.
Insulating tape: used to insulate wires, connect or wrap cables, etc. to prevent leakage and short circuits.
Insulating gloves and insulating boots: used to protect the safety of electricians in high-voltage environments.
In addition to the above basic electrical tools (materials, tools), other special tools may be required depending on specific operations and needs, such as wire twisting tools, crimping pliers, cable arrangers, electrician hammers, etc. When performing electrical work, ensure that the tools used are safe and reliable, and follow relevant safety regulations and operating procedures to protect the safety of yourself and others.
