Annex 1 section 1.7.4 of the Machinery Directive contains as good a basic desciption of what should be contained in an instruction manual as I know of (although it's only in very general terms, of course). You can get the full Annex free from
http://www.conformance.co.uk/CE_MARKING/ce_mech_anx1.html As has already been stated by others, more specific guidance will be found in product standards, although in my experience the requirements of product standards are usually pretty general except maybe for a few very specific requirements. Balancing the genuine safety concerns with the 'no brainer' warnings is not always easy. It's ultimately almost impossible to be objective about this and it's one of the areas where some independent assistance from people not overly familiar with your particular product might be helpful. (That could be read as a plug for consultancy services, but it's not always necessary to pay for good engineering advice - most engineers I know have friends and acquantainces who would be happy to help out by reading through a draft manual.) I deal a lot with consumer goods, and I'd certainly recommend giving as many 'no-brainer' warnings as possible with most domestic products. What you're not allowed to do, however, is rely for safety on a warning to the user against something which you know they are going to do anyway. CE mark directives all require the manufacturer to consider 'foreseeable misuse' and to take steps to prevent hazards becoming significant risks from such misuse. For example, in the instructions for a hairdryer one can put a warning that the user should not use the appliance with wet hands, but you've also got to be pretty certain that the product is actually safe to use with wet hands, since you know that's how a significant proportion of your customers _will_ use it. Taking the example of the 'unplug before servicing' warning, I'd think carefully about leaving basic and common warnings such as this out of instruction manuals even for products which are only ever going to be used by experienced personnel. It's not difficult to see the logic which says that since most equipment has a warning like this in the instructions, any equipment which does not must be safe to service while still plugged in. (It's not a line of logic I'd apply myself, but it's not difficult to imagine a lawyer trying to apply it.) The machinery directive specifically requires manufacturers to consider the 'acumen' of the users of equipment when preparing instructions and there's an obvious difference between the requirements for (say) shop floor operators and service technicians. However, consider for a moment that someone trained as a mechanical technician probably won't know much about electrical safety (and vice-versa) but in a busy factory environment, both electrical and mechanical fitters may be called to work on any particular fault. Each will need warnings that that other does not. It seems to me that the primary difference which the acumen of the user will make is how the information is presented, not which warnings should be in and which should be left out. Regards Nick. At 15:53 -0500 10/11/99, Russell, Ray wrote: >Greetings, > >In this day and age of trying to cover your butt, from liability (especially >in the USA), I have found it interesting that the information in some User >manuals are going to the extreme to warn the consumer, while other similar >products have very few warnings. > >In addition, our European partner is balking at the warnings we now have. >They state that since the instructions require that installation or service >should only be a "qualified personnel" then this person should know some of >the obvious dangers, such as unplugging the device before servicing. > >Now assuming that a product is approved to US and European standards, can >someone recommend a guide that would help to define additional manual >requirements for US and Europe? > >Thank you, > >Ray Russell >Regulatory Compliance Engineer > --------- This message is coming from the emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to majord...@ieee.org with the single line: "unsubscribe emc-pstc" (without the quotes). For help, send mail to ed.pr...@cubic.com, jim_bac...@monarch.com, ri...@sdd.hp.com, or roger.volgst...@compaq.com (the list administrators).
