Product safety guidelines for prototype and limited use commercial devices

Designing a product to meet an acceptable level of safety can be an expensive and complicated task. Sophisticated analysis techniques exist and are widely used to protect the public in the nuclear, aerospace, and aircraft industries with good success. Lower value consumer products generally follow well-defined safety standards that theoretically force a sufficiently high level of safety without the expense of exhaustive analysis. For products used in a workplace, safety standards fall under the aegis of local and national worker safety organizations, which often focus only on eliminating the most obvious hazards in the most dangerous industries. Unfortunately, to the designer of prototype and limited use commercial devices, it is not always obvious what level of safety is expected nor which standards apply. Too often, the design engineer is not trained in safety; has neither an understanding of the relative level of safety required nor how to achieve it; and is overwhelmed by the voluminous standards and the cryptic advice offered by private and commercial safety agencies. This report reviews existing product design safety techniques, standards, and regulations applicable to prototype and limited use commercial devices, and establishes an appropriate set of product design safety guidelines for limited use commercial devices based on frequency of use, potential hazard level, user skill level, and use environment.