What does that mean? A guide to interpretations

IEC 60950-1 is written as a general document intended to cover a wide array of products. The standard would become unwieldy if it were to include specific information for every possible construction of all of the products within the scope. In addition, advances in design and construction techniques will usually outpace updates to the standard. The result is that the safety certification engineer is often left trying to figure out how various clauses apply to a particular product. Knowing and understanding the most common interpretations before designing a product can reduce the risk of problems during the certification process. This paper covers some of the resources available that provide interpretations to the standard and its national and group differences. This paper also discusses techniques for obtaining interpretations where no existing interpretation exists.