Safety
The electrical and electronic equipment must meet the essential requirements of the Low Voltage Directive Safety 2014/35/EU (LVD) which concerns devices with supply voltages between 50 and 1000 Volt. For products with lower power than 50 Volt, the reference Directive is Directive 2001/95/CE general product safety.
Sicom Testing carries out verifications in accordance with harmonised standards related to these directives. The application of the standards includes: analysis of schematics and components used in the product in relation to the use indicated on the packaging and on the instruction manual, dimensional analysis with regard to insulation, testing of failures, surges, thermal tests, mechanical tests and flame resistance tests; applied from time to time in ways that depend on the specific product subjected to testing.
For brevity, the set of these tests is called the electrical safety testing.
Dangers and conditions of use
In harmonized standards related to these directives, in addition to the dangers of electric shock, other risks are considered, such as those of mechanical origin, burst, afterburn, fire, the light radiation emissions, the release of toxic substances, and other.
The analysis takes into account not only the normal use of the products, but also foreseeable abnormal use. Moreover, the product must remain safe even if a failure occurs.
The continuous evolution of safety
In recent decades, advances in safety have been enormous. However, the presence of an increasing number of electrical and electronic devices, which utilize evolving technologies, introduces new potential dangers.
As a result even today there are many accidents due to electrical or electronic equipment which is not secure enough: in Europe two products per week are withdrawn on average for non-compliance with safety requirements.
The continuous evolution of the harmonized standards aims at protecting both users of products and companies, which thus have effective verification procedures to reduce the risk of accidents to people, things and animals.
Human exposure to electromagnetic fields
A particular aspect of security is to human exposure to electromagnetic fields.
The sensitivity to this topic has been stimulated by the intensive use of mobile phones and the presence on the territory of strong radio and television transmitters. Over the years, however, it was found that the sources of electromagnetic fields are varied both in the home and in the workplace. For this reason it is mandatory to evaluate the human exposure for all electrical and electronic equipment.
To be done properly, the verification of compliance with the requirements of human exposure requires today to master different methods of evaluation, as well as personnel with specific expertise in this field.
To learn more visit page dedicated to human exposure.