Products Compliance and Safety Engineering as a Challenge for Academia

The increase in quantity and complexity of products means an increase in the potential hazards which can endanger the safety of persons or properties, when are designed, manufactured, installed, maintained and used for their intended purpose.

Specifically, new technological developments are generating an emerging science of Products Compliance and Safety that will help to prevent adverse events by improving the methods used in the entire life cycle of a product, from the idea to market with benefits relative to risks maximized. The academic education programs should provide advice on how to minimize the safety risks when using the equipment, and on safety features to incorporate into its design. The sources of these hazards and safety compliance criteria should also be provided.

In order to achieve completeness, there is a need to add principles of standardization and regulation of products to the engineering educational curriculum. Safety and Standards, Single fault philosophy, Identifying Safety Hazards, Conformity Assessment Procedures, Selection of Components, Construction Details, Safety and EMC Tests, User Concerns, Certification Procedures, would be few of the subjects of a plan of study. There is a world-wide consensus that Products Compliance and Safety issues are important in customer and professional areas, engineering, management and other fields. This aspect is oblivious due to the fact that Products Compliance and Safety is now a global issue, because markets are global.