Brian, You can provide maintenance and servicing info to your customer. Just be sure your manuals are in order.
To write a any kind of manual, a clear definition "audience" is necessary. In your case, you are considering the training and knowledge of the average laboratory user - about the hazards of performing maintenance on electrical equipment (best to assume none). Qualified as a scientist (even in an electrical field) has no relation to a qualification to perform maintenance tasks. Tasks requiring the ability to understand (and avoid) the hazards present must only be carried out by truly qualified personnel. You recognize this in the construction of your equipment. > My main area of difficulty lies in that we rely on the fact > that our electronic units are located behind locked doors or screwed > panels to achieve our LVD compliance. You should clearly establish at least two categories of personnel who will be interacting with your equipment: 1. Skilled personnel (maintenance staff, specialists). You must define the general skills/knowledge required or the necessary qualification(s) of skilled personnel. You must also specify any specific training/knowledge these skilled personnel will require to be able to recognize and avoid any proprietary hazards in your equipment. 2. Users (operators). Assume: they cannot recognize any hazards (they only know what you've told them in the manual) they will ignore many of your warnings (which is why some designers use special screws for closing off non-user areas) You cannot assume that the user is a skilled person. EN 61010 does not assume this. Your duty as the manufacturer is to CLEARLY separate tasks which can be performed by users from those which must only be performed by skilled/trained personnel. Then, you must explain how to carry out these tasks safely. Regards, Matt PS If you want to talk about the "qualifications" of scientists - just browse around the internet. Or go directly here: http://www.rli.com/accident/year_lists/pre-1987.html #021: 1977: Scientist blinded by pulsed Nd:YAG laser. A scientist was partially blinded by a reflection from what was called a relatively weak Nd:YAG The exposure in the eye was approximately 6 mJ. However, 6 mJ in a 10 nsec exposure time creates enormous peak power approximately a thousand times greater than the limit allowed into the eye. Although the laser was thought to be relatively weak, in fact it was many orders of magnitude above the accepted safe exposure limit. As a result of the exposure, a vitreous hemorrhage was produced and the person went into shock. Fortunately, the hemorrhage did not produce a foveal lesion, and eventually some vision did return. The accident was due to the fact that although eye protection, was available, it was not being used. This incident could have been avoided if a laser safety program had developed a safety awareness so that people wore protective eyewear. --------- This message is coming from the emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to [email protected] with the single line: "unsubscribe emc-pstc" (without the quotes). For help, send mail to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected] (the list administrators).
