Light plays an important role in our everyday life. It ensures our safety as pedestrians, motorists and patients in hospitals. It provides comfort in houses and offices. It transmits messages on computers, TVs and in movie theatres. It is vital in regulating biological rhythms and hormones.

This edition features a number of articles on light and lighting:

• The Oscar ceremony and some of the standards that support multimedia
• A project of the European lighting industry to improve light quality and energy efficiency in partnership with the EU
• Lasers and some of the safety lamps and lamp system standards being developed by TC 76: Optical radiation safety and laser equipment
• The new revision of the database, IEC 60061, Lamp caps and holders together with gauges for the control of interchangeability and safety
• (more)

The illustrious name of Thomas A. Edison is this year being added to the IEC awards programme for the first time, joining existing honours that commemorate the IEC’s first President, Lord Kelvin, and the Commission’s founding year, 1906.

The Thomas A. Edison award recognizes exceptional current achievement by TC and SC officers, as well as their conformity assessment counterparts, in the management of their committees.

The new award is therefore clearly distinguished both from the pre-eminent Lord Kelvin Award for outstanding long-term technical contributions to the IEC’s work, and from the 1906 Award which marks extraordinary contributions by individual experts to specific standardization projects. (more)

Although many of us can name a "Best Picture", or perhaps "Best Actor" or "Best Actress", we might find it harder to name the IEC International Standards helping to make movies possible.

Behind the scenes of the red-carpeted Oscar ceremony, there are many International Standards keeping abreast of the latest technology developments and ensuring safe design, installation and performance. (more)

Attendees at the 2009 IEC General Meeting heard about the new database set up with information on national adoptions of IEC standards.

Since then, records in the database have been consolidated with further data supplied by IEC NCs and participants in the IEC Affiliate Country Programme. The database contains more than 130 000 references of national adoptions and is searchable by IEC publication reference, national reference, country and TC.

The IEC and ISO have agreed to use a single common database to show the status of the International Standards adopted on a national level. (more)

e-tech talked to Jack Sheldon, Secretary of the Standardization Management Board, about some of the decisions taken in the recent Geneva meeting:

• How is the decision to accept alternative "referee" test methods going to impact the work of TCs?
  
• From now on it will be up to the Technical Committee to ask the question: Is a new technology/equipment justified or can the same result also be achieved with existing equipment
  
• The SMB has decided to remove persistently inactive experts from working groups. Why not leave them there?
  
• The SMB is actively promoting the successful development of Smart Grids around the world. It has adopted nine recommendations (more)

Switching a light on or off is such a routine task that we take it for granted. We leave lights on for hours, certain they won’t overheat or ignite. We know what kind of light bulb to use based on the marking on the fixture. In short, we know they're safe.

Many different IEC TCs cooperate on producing IEC International Standards for the lighting industry.

But without testing and certification, standards remain theoretical. The IECEE CB Scheme ensures compliance with the impressive list of IEC International Standards developed for the lighting industry. (more)

Motors for drilling platforms, export terminals, onshore processing facilities or pipelines for the oil and gas industry are designed to operate in extreme conditions. They need very strict and specific safeguards against fires, explosions and other hazards associated with explosive atmospheres.

The IECEx Conformity Mark shows that a product has been granted an IECEx Certificate of Conformity. IECEx Certification confirms that the product has the appropriate protection for use in explosive atmospheres and that it has been manufactured under systems subject to ongoing surveillance by IECEx CBs (Certification Bodies).

IECEx has just granted its first Ex Conformity Mark to a motor manufacturer. (more)

Who hasn’t received an electrostatic shock from touching a metallic doorknob after crossing a carpeted room? Static electricity has been a serious industrial problem for centuries.

Electrostatic discharges can severely damage or destroy semiconductor devices and create failures.

IECQ, the IEC Quality Assessment System for Electronic Components, provides assessment and Process Approval Certification as a means of providing independent verification of compliance to IEC 61340-5-1, the IEC's International Standard on Electrostatics and the protection of electronic devices from electrostatic phenomena. (more)

LEDs are starting to make inroads in some areas, notably in urban lighting and automobiles.

Improvements in LEDs have been enormous since the invention of the technology in the early 1960s.

The US DoE (Department of Energy) predicts that LEDs will make up 70 % of the lighting market by 2020, up from their current market share of less than 1 %. As well as use in direct lighting, the devices are being used in applications such as backlighting for televisions. (more)

The European lighting industry is working on a project to improve light quality and energy efficiency in partnership with the EU.

As Chairman of the LSL (Lighting System Legislation) taskforce, Kay Rauwerdink outlined the LSL project at the recent CIE conference in Vienna, Austria. (more)

At the end of February, the IEC was pleased to welcome Chile as its 79th Member.

The IEC NC of Chile, CORNELEC, the Electrotechnical Standardization Corporation, joins as a Full Member. Full membership provides the country with the right to participate in all IEC standardization activities, including voting on all technical and management matters. (more)

In March 2010 IEC was invited to take part in the annual meeting of the regional organization, CANENA, organized this year in collaboration with INTECO, the Costa Rican institute of technical standards, and BUN-CA, the regional organization for cooperation on energy efficiency in Central America and held under the banner of energy efficiency and electrical safety.

San José, Costa Rica, the venue chosen for the event, was unusual in that it was the first time since CANENA was founded in 1992, that a meeting was taking place outside the territory of the original country members, USA (United States of America), Canada and Mexico.

Amaury Santos, Regional Manager IEC-LARC (Latin America Regional Centre) attended. (more)

Mexico City, Mexico, was the setting for the 2010 WTO (World Trade Organization) regional workshop on TBT (Technical Barriers to Trade).

The IEC has always been an active supporter of WTO events in the Latin American and Caribbean region.

This year Amaury Santos, IEC-LARC Regional Manager, was representing the IEC. (more)

• ETCI (the Electro-Technical Council of Ireland) which holds the Secretariat of the Irish National Committee of the IEC has a new President, Michael Hanly
  
• The Secretariat of IEC SC 34B: Lamp caps and holders, has transferred to Germany from the Netherlands, with Andreas Scholtz named as Secretary
  
• Miguel Ángel Aranda has succeeded Nuria Barrio as Secretary of IEC TC 1: Terminology

Oil prices, environmental concerns and the emergence of new technologies led the organizers of the March 2010 Fully Networked Car Workshop to hold a session on "Electric vehicles and Climate Change".

The workshop, organized by the WSC (World Standards Cooperation) brought together the experts of the automotive industries and ICT (information and communication technologies) in a common aim to computerize the vehicles of today's and tomorrow's world.

One of the most innovative projects outlined in the session was the VDS (Vehicle Design Summit), presented by Steven Jeremy Ntambi of Uganda. (more)

Nothing beats photons. We can align these quantum particles into columns of light to make lasers, but although they are useful in every corner of the world, lasers can be hazardous if used improperly.

Members of IEC TC 76: Optical radiation safety and laser equipment, address laser safety by writing a multitude of safety standards. (more)

Not all IEC standards follow the same format. More than 10 years ago, when the IEC became a "paperless" organization, some publications adopted a new database format.

An electronic format is more practical, more accessible and faster to use than a paper-based publication. The most recent of the numerous amendments to IEC 60061, Lamp caps and holders together with gauges for the control of interchangeability and safety, was made in February 2010. (more)

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If you have any questions and/or comments, please contact Philippa Martin-King at iecetech@iec.ch.