Let me address the question of “how to safely perform this test”. The proper safety precautions depend on the mass and stability of the equipment. Equipment doesn’t have to be too heavy to cause an injury if it falls over on somebody. If the equipment is large and/or very heavy, consider having it tested at a laboratory that has equipment that can do the test safely. If you don’t have that option, think about what precautions may be required.
I can give an example of a test I ran at a previous employer. I had to run a 10-degree tilt test on a standard sized equipment rack loaded to 1500 kg. The stabilization feet were down, but they were only about 500 mm apart between the two sides of the rack. The rack was a full 2-meter height with the load evenly placed in the rack. This should have been done at an external laboratory with the proper equipment. However, an NRTL was there to witness testing and they insisted in seeing it done that day. The first mistake was figuring out how to tilt the rack. The solution was to go to the parking lot and to get the jack out of the back of a car. The jack was designed to lift one wheel of a 1500 kg car, not half of a 1500 kg rack. Somehow, the jack survived the test and tilted the rack. The second mistake was the placement of the test. The rack was about 1 meter from a wall and we tilted it towards that wall. It was standard drywall construction, and I don’t think it would have stopped the rack if it fell over. The people in the office on the other side would have been in for a surprise. The next mistake was not placing any limitation on the tilt. We could have placed straps at the top of the rack to a solid support in the lab. We could have limited the tilt to 11 degrees, so that if the rack did start to go over, it would have been stopped before it went too far. This probably would have also required blocking the stabilization feet to keep them from sliding. There was an additional error of not properly securing all loads inside the rack. The full loading of the rack was simulated using steel plates, but they were just held in place by gravity. When the tilt reached 8 degrees, much of the weight shifted. We were tilting the rack towards its front, and only the latch on the front door kept the plates from sliding out of the rack. The test was completed without incident, and that was largely due to the mechanical engineers designing the product to pass the test. There were still plenty of opportunities for things to go wrong. The NRTL engineer left the facility happy with the results. Only after that did I realize how poorly designed the test setup was. In summary, think about the worst possible things that could happen during your test. Figure out ways to design them out of your test setup. If you can’t eliminate a risk, consider taking the product to a facility that can run the test more safely. If you are not sure what the hazards may be, consult with your facilities Employee Health and Safety (EH&S) staff. Ted Eckert Microsoft Corporation The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of my current or former employers. This email message may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized use is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message. From: Frank Tang <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2019 1:18 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [PSES] Tilt test Hi Engineering community, I'm trying to find information regard tilt testing, such as minimal tilt angle based on system weight, how to safely perform this test, etc; can someone direct me to site(s) or standards I can reference? Google for once isn't helping. -- Thank you and best regards. - Frank - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. 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