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Safe Electronics Begins with Safety Standards
 Whether it’s nanotechnology or medical imaging devices or portable media players, consumers expect that electronics are built with safety in mind. Safety, however, can be taken for granted.
To help improve the use of safety measures, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) offers the ANSI Z535 series of safety communications standards and guidelines. The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) has recently launched the ANSI Z535 webpage to make these standards even more accessible. Go to global.ihs.com for a complete overview. The site also offers tips for using the safety standards in the home or office
According to Paul Orr, NEMA program manager and secretary for the Z535 committee, the decision to create a webpage for the documents grew from a discussion by the committee to increase awareness of the series and to supplement the committee’s mission to develop standards for the design, application, and use of signs, colors, and symbols intended to identify and warn against specific hazards and for other accident prevention purposes.
Recently updated, the ANSI Z535 series of standards for safety signs and colors depicts and explains unique properties that can be used to alert people to hazards in the workplace and at home.
“It’s a growing need, not just an electrical safety issue,” Orr said. “The safety standards apply across the board—automotive, energy, construction, aerospace, defense, home, leisure, everywhere.”
Together, these six standards contain information needed to specify formats, colors, and symbols for safety signs used in environmental and facility applications (Z535.2) and product applications (Z535.4), along with those used for temporary accident prevention tags (Z535.5) and in product-accompanying literature (Z535.6). All three types of signs have provisions for graphic depictions. Individually, they address specific safety concerns. Collectively, they prevent accidents and injuries.
The newest addition to the series, ANSI Z535.6, American National Standard for Product Safety Information in Product Manuals, Instructions and Other Collateral Materials, focuses on providing users with a hazard communication system developed specifically for product safety information presented in collateral materials.
ANSI Z535.3, Criteria for Safety Symbols, addresses the multi-ethnic and highly mobile U.S. population. “Different reading skills complicate the effectiveness of word-only signs,” Orr said. “This standard demonstrates effective safety symbols and their ability to provide critical information for accident prevention and for personal protection.”
Another important factor in safety signs is color. ANSI Z535.1, American National Standard for Safety Color, and its accompanying safety color chart used to provide color notations based only on the Munsell and CIE color systems. But users wanted to reference another popular color system—the Pantone Matching System (PMS). However, many committee members were at first somewhat hesitant to provide the PMS matches because they weren't always in the center of the color tolerance ranges.
"When you print out a color, the temperature, humidity, material you print on—all these affect the final print color,” Orr said. “Sometimes when you use a PMS number, it could actually fall outside the range of color tolerances and not be a true safety red."
User demand, however, won out, and the latest version of the safety color chart includes the closest Pantone number for each of the safety colors defined in the standard. Users of the standard can purchase the safety color chart separately from the standard; it provides a single offset printed sample of each of the safety colors, along with information about each color's ink formulation and the closest PMS color.
To review the ANSI Z535 series go to global.ihs.com.
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