" Safety standards are not tested to see if they accomplish the objective"
I'm not sure how one would go about doing that, other than gathering data from customer returns and from product recalls. It may not be only a problem with standards, but also with how the standards are applied (training at NRTLs), and what follow-up service really provides. For example, if some fires are caused by internal arcing, then does follow-up service inspect spacings in detail during a factory visit? NO. Do routine dielectric tests catch in-circuit spacing issues. Again, I think the answer is NO. There will always exist unit-to-unit variation and if spacings are right at the minimum and tolerance stack is not carefully accounted for in the design, you probably cannot assume NRTL test & inspection will catch it. To assume a prototype or two accurately represents a field population of say 10,000 units is an act of faith, and hoping that the odds are with you. Ralph McDiarmid Product Compliance Engineering Solar Business Schneider Electric *Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail -----Original Message----- From: Richard Nute [mailto:ri...@ieee.org] Sent: Sunday, May 22, 2016 2:39 PM To: EMC-PSTC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG Subject: Re: [PSES] fire safety test methods for different country standards Our most common and serious safety issue is that of product electrically-caused fire. I subscribe to "In Compliance" weekly recall notices; most are fire. As Gert Gremmen has stated, no fault-testing has resulted in a product fire in the test lab, yet product fires continue to occur in the field. Clearly, 60950, 61010, and others are not adequate in testing for fire and in specifying fire safeguards. We are doing something wrong. Safety standards are not tested to see if they accomplish the objective. Instead, they are promulgated and use the field as the test bed. Maybe 62368 will improve the product fire situation. Rich - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <emc-p...@ieee.org> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html (including how to unsubscribe) List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <sdoug...@ieee.org> Mike Cantwell <mcantw...@ieee.org> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <j.bac...@ieee.org> David Heald: <dhe...@gmail.com> ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service. ______________________________________________________________________ ________________________________ This message was scanned by Exchange Online Protection Services. ________________________________ - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <emc-p...@ieee.org> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html (including how to unsubscribe) List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <sdoug...@ieee.org> Mike Cantwell <mcantw...@ieee.org> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <j.bac...@ieee.org> David Heald: <dhe...@gmail.com>
