God protect us from committee decisions!
Does anyone remember IEC 380 - Great electrical spec but hopeless for any other expect (except topple. Then can IEC 435 which missed flammability. Now we have 950 - which is pretty through but missing a few things... IMAGINE if the selection and definitions of Critical Components is abdicated to IEC or any other committee for that matter. What I am getting at the EDUCATION versus TRAINING We train dogs - we educate children. We produce standards to provide detail for testing and review but we caveat them with warnings: 1- "It is essential that designers understand the underlying principles of safety requirements....." 950 Para 0.1 2- "Attention is drawn to the additional requirements which may be specified by national authorities responsible for health and safety of labor forces." 1010 Note Para 1.2 3-"COMPLIANCE WITH A BRITISH STANDARDS DOES NOT.....CONFER IMMUNITY FROM LEGAL OBLIGATIONS." EN61131-2 FORWARD 4- Digital's safety standard has words similar to - the product safety engineer may include any additional tests to ensure the safety of the equipment and the user. If we train engineers by rote (following the letter of standards without understanding "the underlying principles of safety requirements" (950) then we create a false security. viz - The product meets the standard but sinks, when it hits an iceberg - explodes, on launch - turns over when a tire bursts, etc. What I hear in these columns supports a belief that our work can be replaced by a series of check lists. That demeans our profession - and compliance engineering will be cut off as though it were a carbuncle on the bottom of R&D. I believe that compliance engineering requires wider and greater specialism than does design engineering (I have equal experience in BOTH camps and feel competent to make that judgment). What I believe we need is to EDUCATE others, demonstrate and Identify ourselves as professions. I do not support abdicating OUR individual responsibilities for defining what critical items are to some conglomerate group that works in geological time. That is the day to day role of a PS engineer. Either we (as professional compliance engineers) have the knowledge and experience to judge for ourselves - or we need to broaden our experience - or we should not be in regulatory compliance. Gregg Kervill DipIM, MIMgt, MIEEE ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: [email protected] with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Michael Garretson: [email protected] Dave Heald [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: [email protected] Jim Bacher: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: No longer online until our new server is brought online and the old messages are imported into the new server.
