Even in the USA it is common for manufacturing buildings to have their electricity delivered and metered by the utility at voltages far higher than 110/220v.
To provide my 2010 shop with the amount of power I needed, The City of Burbank Department of Water and Power required that the buildings existing and obsolete single phase 110/220v service be disconnected. I paid for them to install a new power pole and provide a large (3,000 KVA) transformer on top of a concrete vault my contractor installed. The output of their transformer is 480v 3 ph. My building is nearly 300 feet long and 70 feet wide, with the electrical service at the south end.
As an electrical engineer myself, I do not like running 110v lines more than 100' from a transformer. Therefore High of the East and West walls are mounted 6 transformers to step down the 480v to 110/220v single phase and 208v 3 ph. The transformer powering an existing A/C system only provides 220v 1 ph. The others power separate breaker panels. All of my fixed machines which can be wired directly for 480v 3ph are. The longest 480v run to a machine is 265 feet, so all we did was increase the size of the cable slightly.
In the 2.5 years since I opened this shop, we have had no problems with voltage drop. Currently my 'connected load' is 1,100 KVA, so there is a lot of reserve for future growth without redesigning my electrical distribution system.
As my workers comp insurance people and I interpret California labor electrical safety regulations, I may not allow an employee to use any hand-held electrical tool using voltage higher than 125v. Legally I believe it would be legal to use 240v Kapex, so long as they were hard wired to a disconnecting means, except that Festool does not import 220v Kapex and they are not 'listed' by UL or any such service for use in the USA. California and Burbank regulations require all electrical devices used in a business to be listed by UL or an acceptable service.
The experience of many FOG members is that Festools are designed to run on 50 to 60 cycles. So in Australia, for example, a step-down transformer to 110-125v 1 ph 50hz would work. Chances are a USA-style 125v 1ph 15 or 20a receptacle would not pass inspection. So the CT power cord would need to use an Australian approved connector. Probably changing that connector would void the Festool warranty.
