Fire! The very word conjures up chaos of the worst kind. Thankfully, fire in electrotechnical equipment is relatively rare due partly to the ongoing efforts of TC 89 Fire hazard testing.
Fire safety is a concern in every geographical region, and TC 89 seeks to establish global methods and guidance for assessing fire hazard in electrotechnical products. There is a rapid global increase in the use of electrotechnical products in all application areas.
In the developed world, fire claims 10 - 20 people per million of population per annum, and fire losses amount to approximately 0.2 % of gross domestic product per year. Occupied buildings account for a majority of fatal fires. In addition, uncontrolled fires, and their effluent, are perceived as a significant environmental concern.
Electrotechnical products present two potential hazards: they contain or convey electrical energy and, therefore, may be a source of ignition and an avenue of fire spread.
TC 89 aims to establish a basis for assessing fire hazard which facilitates an objective evaluation and trade-off between adequate safety and minimum overall cost.
Any reduction in the incidence of uncontrolled fire can only be regarded as having a positive environmental benefit on the risk to health, post fire contamination and clean-up, and long term environmental effects. Read the full article. |
Nicolas N. Maennling is a Standards Consultant working out of Lanark, Ontario, Canada. He enjoyed a 29 year career as an Electro-Mechanical Technologist at Nortel Networks and all its predecessors plus Bell-Northern Research and latterly managed the ISO 9000 Certified Components Engineering Laboratory. He was downsized out of Nortel in 1994. In the late 1970s he was responsible for the initial laboratory work into assessing the relative flammability of electronic components used in Bell Telephone Central Switching Offices. This activity led to involvement in the standards committee IEC TC 89 Fire hazard testing. In 1991 he became convener of WG 12: Test flames and resistance to heat. Small scale heat and flame test methods. In 1993 he became