RE: ANSI 42.17A-1989

["Lavera, Ron" <Ron.Lavera@nypa.gov>]

Mr. Simmons

I was involved in the early discussions about Instrument Type Testing ( what
later became N42.17) at NIST in the 1980's.  There was a great deal of
information gather from testing the then current instrument types against
some of the same test that were incorporated into the standard.  The poor
performance of those instruments helped drive the development of N42.17.
While they don't specifically mention the instrument manufacturers and
models, enough information was available within the body of the report to
let the average user figure out most of the specifics.  As I recall,
Battelle North West labs did the original study.  Ken Swinth (
swinthkl@aol.com <mailto:swinthkl@aol.com>  ) was, I believe, one of the
authors and can probably give you more information.  The results of the
tests were not pretty.  If you have instruments with vintages like the RO-2,
Teletector and E-520 ( not picking on any one vendor !! ) then I think that
you'll have a tough time showing compliance with those standards.  In
addition, both standards require maintenance procedures, replacement parts
and periodic testing to demonstrate continued compliance.  Good luck pulling
together that kind of information for a 10-20 year old instrument.

The opinions provided are mine and mine alone.  Please do check with Mr.
Swinth.

Ron LaVera CHP
Lavera.r@nypa.gov

		-----Original Message-----
		From:	Simmons, Thad W [mailto:Thad.Simmons@mkg.com]
		Sent:	Thursday, January 20, 2000 10:54 AM
		To:	Multiple recipients of list
		Subject:	ANSI 42.17A-1989

		Greetings--
		I am currently doing an evaluation of our current instrument
inventory in
		accordance with ANSI N323A and N42.17A. We have an older
instrument
		inventory and need to determine whether or not our
instruments meet the test
		data in N42.17A.
		I understand there was DOE stuff that was done in this area.
I would like to
		know how to access it. Does anyone out there have this
information.

		Thad Simmons, RRPT
		Mallinckrodt Medical 
	
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