IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - March 2018 - 119

Book Review

Electrical Product Compliance
and Safety Engineering
Reviewed by Stefan Mozar

very time I have given a presentation on design considerations for
consumer power supplies, someone
in the audience has expressed his or
her surprise at the safety requirements.
Even experienced design engineers will
often have doubts about the safety
requirements with which they must comply. In the field of consumer technology,
safety is a very important issue. Consumer products are used by people of all
walks of life, ranging from children to
seniors. As a result, products need to be
designed to cope with product abuse and
misuse and still remain safe.
A new book, Electrical Product Compliance and Safety Engineering, has been
released by Artech House. Its authors,
Steli Loznen, Constantin Bolintineanu,
and Jan Swart cover issues of electrical
product compliance and safety in a simple to understand and well-structured reference book. All three authors are
experienced and highly regarded product
safety experts. This is a reference work
that is of importance for anybody in the
consumer technology field.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS
OF THIS BOOK?
First, the book is a one-stop reference
for electronics/electrical product designers that can help direct them ensure the
product being designed is compliant
with international safety and compliance
requirements. Thus, costly product redeDigital Object Identifier 10.1109/MCE.2017.2776501
Date of publication: 8 February 2018

signs and time-to-market delays are
reduced. It is also a reference book for
safety engineers.
The book contains 16 chapters and a
detailed glossary of terms and abbreviations used by the safety engineering
community. Chapters 1-4 cover basic
issues in safety such as the need for
safety, international regulations and
market access, standards, and safety
philosophy. Chapters 5-11 discuss the
business aspects of safety. This includes
topics such as failure analysis methods,
risk assessment concepts, electrical
safety concepts, component selection,
batteries and power sources, and construction requirements for safety. Chap-

ter 12 discusses the important topic of
how to tell the world that safety requirements are met, and it covers markings
and documentation. Chapter 13 touches
on human factors and their impact on
safety. Chapter 14 addresses testing
issues and compliance testing [electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing].
Software testing is also mentioned.
Chapter 15 deals with routine test processes during the manufacturing process, and the final chapter discusses the
education and training of safety and
EMC engineers.
In summary, the contents of this
book discuss electrical product safety
primarily from a device perspective.
Some systems concepts are discussed,
but this book provides an overview of
how to ensure a product is safe, primarily from a hardware perspective. Software
is mentioned, but discussing software
safety in detail is beyond the scope of
this book.

WHO SHOULD CONSIDER
OWNING A COPY?
Those involved with product development, safety technicians, engineers, and
managers would benefit from this book.
Anybody who needs to know about
product safety will find it very useful. It
should reside in college or university
libraries, product development laboratories, as well as in safety test houses or
laboratories. It is a valuable reference
book that should have a place on anyone's desk who is involved in safety in
the broadest sense.

march 2018

IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine

119

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