From the 26th to the 30th of October, several meetings were hold in Athens (Greece) of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) groups that are in charge of re-viewing the 4 parts of the lightning protection standard IEC 62305 (General principles, Risk management, Physical damage to structures and life hazard, Electrical and electronic systems within structures).
Aplicaciones Tecnológicas has participated in all the procedure of this standard, which was first published in 2006 and is now in the stage of preparation for the 3rd edition. The meetings of this year were attended by lightning protection experts from more than 15 countries around the world, being Spain represented by Aplicaciones Tecnológicas through a technician with over 20 years experience in standardization.
The 3rd edition is pretended to be published in 2018. After its maintenance cycle a document should be achieved that really improves the edition before. The previous edition (2010) had some lacks that are now intended to be corrected, such as an over-complicated risk assessment – especially for the calculation of economic losses – or the uncertainty about protection against lateral impacts.
Besides, the new edition intends to incorporate useful information included in forthcoming IEC standards, such as the standard of Lightning Location Systems (IEC 62858) for more accurate lightning discharge number or the use of Thunderstorm Warning Systems according to the standard IEC 62793 as elements able to reduce the risk of damages due to lightning.
For Aplicaciones Tecnológicas, S.A it is essential to be always aware of the last changes in normative and the improvements they mean, in order to apply them to our products and procedures and also for assessing our distributors and customers about the correct application of the standards.