Product Safety Engineer Article 2008
Are you concerned with minimizing risks? Are you aware of product liability lawsuits where the claim had no merit and yet the injured party was still awarded the victory (example: Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants where the jury decided that the hot coffee warning was neither large enough nor sufficient and awarded $2.9 million to the injured party.) Are you concerned how you are going to be able to understand, properly respond, and comply with international safety requirements?
The need for compliance with product safety guidelines comes from the attempt to minimize injuries. It is widely accepted that not only is it a moral obligation of the equipment manufacturer to protect equipment operators but also an obligation on the part of the equipment supplier and the end user company. Therefore, if a case does go to a court of law then safety compliance can help prove a company’s due diligence and dedication to a safe work environment.
The safety guidelines and requirements for a piece of equipment to be "safe" vary greatly worldwide. Some very large geographic areas have strict legal requirements for machinery and electrical safety, such as CE in the European Union. Then there is the USA, which has very strict legal requirements for products emitting radiation, such as a laser, and then other electrical safety requirements that differ from one city to another. In addition, there are industry specific safety guidelines that are not legally mandated but customer-driven like SEMI S2. Because of different regions of the world having different priorities, regional safety requirements can be very confusing; therefore large companies often have full time compliance experts on staff and the remaining companies must use contractors for this service.
The problem with not having a full time compliance expert on staff comes from the need to determine the competence of a proclaimed “expert” in the field of product safety. The Product Safety Engineer Certification program provides documented evidence of expertise. The rigorous requirements prove that a certified Product Safety Engineer has the training and experience to assess product safety. This certification process requires nine years of prior product safety engineering experience, current knowledge of applicable safety standards and regulations, documented evidence of engineering education and training, personal references supporting character and competency as a product safety professional, and the passing of an eight hour exam on Product Safety. After these criteria are passed, in order to maintain certification, the Product Safety Engineer must every year prove continued work in the field of product safety.
Nick Nelson has a long established (over 12 years) experience in compliance issues. In early 2006, he became a certified Product Safety Engineer in order to provide documented evidence of expertise. With his experience, knowledge, and certification, he can provide compliance management for equipment manufacturers during design, in addition to machinery already manufactured and installed. This includes technical support to manage a machine throughout the process necessary to comply with industrial and governmental safety standards of machinery, including but not limited to, NFPA79, NFPA496, UL508, IEC60204-1, UL60950, SEMI S2/S8, and 21CFR1040.10.
So keep in mind that with Daitron Inc. involved there are no such things as compliance problems.