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To be certified to sell our automated test equipment abroad, we are
required to meet stringent safety documentation guidelines. All
documents geared toward the operation or maintenance of the equipment
must have a safety section as the first chapter of the manual. In that
section we must have an illustration of the equipment with callouts
denoting areas of risk on the lefthand page and the callout documentation
on the righthand page. In addition, that chapter contains general
safety information about the equipment.
Using the safety chapter approach does not eliminate the need to
document risks as they may occur in specific test and maintenance
situations, but it does reduce the occurrence of general safety
notations throughout the manuals.
Our software manuals also have some warnings and cautions, but they are
fewer than in the maintenance manuals.
Although the cautions and warnings may be aesthetically unpleasing and
get in the way of readability, when I consider the possibility of
electric shock, lethal or otherwise, I'd rather be safe than fried.
I see that this tendency will only increase as certification
requirements become more stringent.
Nan Breedlove
Teradyne
Walnut Creek, CA
nan -at- atwc -dot- teradyne -dot- com
