IEC e-tech - October 2009 Edition

IEC President, Jacques R�gis, delivered the keynote address on renewable energy at the Open Session of the 32nd ISO (International Organization for Standardization) General Assembly, which took place 14-19 September 2009 in Cape Town, South Africa.

First he highlighted how IEC work can mitigate some of the challenges facing humanity. Then he went on to talk of future use of renewable energy and the importance of IEC International Standards in this respect, particularly in upgrading existing technologies to increase their efficiency. He outlined the role of Strategic Working Groups in taking a system approach to International Standardization.

R�gis stressed the important role of Conformity Assessment Systems in providing unique real-world testing and certification schemes that help ensure quality and safety.

Finally, the IEC President underlined the importance of IEC International Standards in helping governments face the challenges of the Copenhagen Protocol. (more)

The second IEC & ISO Marketing and Communication Forum, Surfing on Hot Topics is to take place on 3-4 December 2009 at the CICG (Centre International de Conf�rences) in Geneva, just a moment's walk from the IEC Central Office. Registrations are still being accepted, but places are going fast.

As before, the Forum is aimed at improving business results, increasing the use and sales of standards and improving the visibility of standards among the general public.

Led by specialists from leading international organizations, attendees will examine some of the new communications technologies and methods for dealing with the media and producing crisis communication. In addition, the Forum aims to give further insight into using social media networks in a professional capacity. (more)

In association with the IEC, the International Commission on Illumination is organizing the "Lighting Quality and Energy Efficiency" conference this coming March in Vienna, Austria .

The conference provides a forum for experts from all over the world to meet together and discuss technologies now being developed for light and lighting.

It also offers an ideal opportunity for meeting and exchanging ideas about the future of lighting technologies both from the point of view of energy and safety.

Papers on a wide variety of subjects are being called for CIE 2010. (more)

FINCA (the Forum of IEC National Committees of the Americas) held its annual meeting on 21-22 September 2009 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Members of FINCA are Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the United States of America.

While agreeing on increasing their participation at regional events, Members also discussed how they might improve contact and communication with those countries in the Americas participating in the IEC Affiliate Country Programme. (more)

Joe Gryn, Director of IECEE Relations at the ULC (Underwriters Laboratories of Canada), and Chairman of IECEE Committee of Testing Laboratories (CTL) looks at some of the structure of CTL, its work with TCs, expert task forces and proficiency testing programmes. (more)

The 2009 annual meetings of IECEx, took place at the end of August in Melbourne, Australia.

Delegates from 29 countries attended the management meetings and participated in the workshops during the week-long programme.

The week started with an ExTAG (Ex Testing and Assessment Group) workshop divided into two sessions with specific training for ExCBs (Ex Certification Bodies) and ExTLs (Ex Testing Laboratories). It was followed by IECEx Assessor training and a subsequent ExTAG meeting.

A second event, attended by over 200 participants, was an Industry Symposium entitled "Hazardous Area Compliance at minimal cost" which concentrated mainly on the Australian market while still retaining a global IECEx System aspect.

The week ended with two days of IECEx Management Committee meetings. (more)

Australia, China, Norway, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand and the American state of California are among the countries that are considering, or have already passed, legislation limiting the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic products. European Union RoHS (Restrictions of Hazardous Substances) in electrical and electronic equipment and WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) took effect in July 2006, and a revision of those directives is currently under consideration.

Demand for IECQ HSPM certification is growing fast as part of a global trend towards environmentally-friendly products and a higher level of responsibility in respect of environmental protection. (more)

It's only today, long after Thomas Edison spent years trying to promote DC over AC, that high-voltage DC is starting to be used to carry large amounts of power over vast distances.

This article looks at some of the work of TC 42 in testing high-voltage. Today, much of their standardization work is caused by the movement towards increasing computer processing power.

Measurements are becoming more sophisticated, and digitizers are increasingly used for all types of testing. In turn, there's a need for different instrumentation and different methods of data interpretation which has spurred revisions to existing standards and to new standards. (more)

This article, by a Singapore-based consultant, reviews some of the drivers behind the digital distribution of music in the Asia-Pacific. In particular, it looks at the audio format standard MPEG-4 SLS and considers audio compression technologies in relation to changing network bandwidth approaches, network and storage technologies, relevant formats and International Standards.

The writer reports the steady market decline that the recorded music industry has experienced due to digitization contrasting it with the possible new lease of life that might come about through the advent of MPEG-4 SLS (Scalable Lossless Coding), an International Standard produced by ISO/IEC JTC 1. (more)

The IEC Canadian NC recently announced its new President, Keith L. Rodel. At present, Rodel is Manager, Standards and Certification, with Hubbell Canada LP in Pickering, Ontario, a position he has held since 1984 and where he manages all national, regional and international standards development and certification activities.

Rodel is a member of the IEC SMB (Standardization Management Board). He has been on the Canadian NC since 2003, Vice-President of the NC since 2004, and Chairman of the Canadian mirror committee to TC 23: Electrical Accessories, and SC 23B, SC 23C and SC 23H since 1996. (more)

In September 2009, Amaury Santos, Regional Manager of the IEC-LARC (Latin America Regional Centre), attended the AIE Electrical Standardization seminar held in the modern campus of INACAP, the Technical University of Chile, Vocational and Technical Training Institute.

The event, attended by over 350 participants, was an ideal forum for presenting the IEC since there were participants from both industry and academia, two sectors that play a major role in the IEC's work.

Though Chile is not yet a Member of the IEC, it is expected that the nation will apply in the near future. Santos' presentation entitled "The importance of the IEC Standards for the Chilean Electricity Market" demonstrated to the public some of the important issues that the IEC is currently working on and some of the benefits the country might obtain by becoming an IEC member. (more)

This year, IBNORCA, (Instituto Boliviano de Normalizaci�n y Calidad), the Bolivian Institute of Quality and Standardization, began issuing informative bulletins about national standardization affairs and relating other relevant news concerning organizations that deal with particular areas of standardization.

In particular, IBNORCA, which has been participating in the IEC Affiliate Country Programme since 2001 as the Bolivian NEC (National Electrotechnical Committee), published several articles relating to electrotechnical matters. Under the heading "electricity", two of these refer specifically to the IEC. (more)

Translation of May e-tech article, IBNORCA

In September, IEC TC (Technical Committee) 40: Capacitors and resistors for electronic equipment, and the British-based EKTN (Electronics Knowledge Transfer Network), organized a conference in Jesus College, Cambridge University.

The conference brought together an international group of experts, component suppliers and designers to discuss the latest developments in passive components.

In particular, the group looked at some of the challenges involved in handling miniature components, accommodating for passive devices and dealing with energy harvesting applications with high requirements for energy storage. (more)

ACEA's main challenge is to offer a global platform for all aspects of standardization concerning the protection of the environment.

In this respect, they are holding a workshop on the afternoon of Tuesday, 20 October during the IEC General Meeting, which is to address a number of legislative and environmental themes.

The speakers, who are all eminent specialists in their own field, cover the three main geographical areas of Europe, the United States of America and Asia. (more)

Following the success of the first IEC Standards+ training course on functional safety, the IEC is now planning the second series of courses – this time in South America, with venues in Brazil and Argentina.

The course is geared towards people with engineering management responsibilities, or those in charge of operations in complex plants. It covers current good practice safety-related systems and is ideal for project managers who want to ensure they have a full grasp of recent developments in the field of functional safety assessment.

The trainer, Ron Bell, is a leading authority on functional safety and one of the experts who helped write IEC 61508. He also chairs one of the two working groups currently undertaking its revision. (more)

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