Peter,

        There are several issues that need to be addressed in this area. 
The needed performance is either to limit a burn to a person who might come
in contact with the part or prevent a fire if the equipment is covered by a
flammable item (such as a towel in the case of a bathroom heater).  

        Standards focus on these requirements in different ways, as you
have already learned. 

        To prevent burns consideration must be given to both the
conductivity of the material as well as the time of contact.  Here's some
augmented US data from the Shriners Burn Institute which was shared here
last year.  

        metal   glass   plastic time to serious burn
        deg C   deg C   deg C   

        __________________________________________

        49      59      74      over 5 min
        52      62      77      1 1/2 to 2 min
        55      65      80      about 30 sec
        57      67      82      about 10 sec
        60      70      85      under 5 sec
        63      73      88      under 3 sec
        66      76      91      about 1 1/2 sec
        68      78      93      about 1 sec

        subtract 20C for handles, knobs or other purposefully touched parts

        Hope that this helps...


        - - - - -

        Peter E Perkins
        Principal Product Safety Consultant
        Tigard, ORe  97281-3427

        +1/503/452-1201 phone/fax

        p.perk...@ieee.org      email

        visit our website:

                http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/peperkins

        - - - - -

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