Richard Nute

Richard Nute is a product safety consultant engaged in safety design, safety manufacturing, safety certification, safety standards, and forensic investigations. Mr. Nute holds a B.S. in Physical Science from California State Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo, California. He studied in the MBA curriculum at the University of Oregon. He is a former Certified Fire and Explosions Investigator. Mr. Nute is a Life Fellow Member of the IEEE, a charter member of the Product Safety Engineering Society (PSES), and a Director of the IEEE PSES Board of Directors (now Governors). He was the technical program chairman of the first 5 PSES annual Symposia and has been a technical presenter at many Symposia. He gave the keynote speech at the Portland, Oregon, PSES. Mr. Nute’s goal is to change the product safety environment from being standards-driven to being engineering-driven; to enable the engineering community to design and manufacture a safe product without having to use a product safety standard; to establish safety engineering as a required course within the electrical engineering curricula.

From This Author

Safety by Design

Creepage Distance

Creepage distance isn't insulation—it's the surface distance between conductors on solid insulation. Understanding how contamination causes micro-arcs, why CTI matters, and when Paschen's law applies is critical for electrical safety and proper insulation design.
Compliance

Product Markings and Labels

Product markings and labels provide information about the product, installation, and use. The markings and labels can also provide warnings to avoid hazardous energy transfer to a body part. The product safety aspects of markings for identification, ratings, functions, connections, and warnings are described.
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Hi-Pot Test Current, Leakage Current and Insulation Resistance

Can the hi-pot test and the insulation resistance test be combined into a single measurement? Let’s discuss each of these parameters as circuit parameters and as safety parameters.
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More on the 25-Amp Grounding Impedance Test

For production-line testing, the 25- or 30-amp grounding continuity test is not likely to identify construction anomalies that would not also be identified by a simple low-current test.
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The 25-Amp Grounding Impedance Test

High-current grounding impedance tests have been specified in safety standards for many years. There are two, independent sources for these tests.
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The Dielectric Withstand (Hi-pot) Test

There always seem to be questions about hi-pot testing. Maybe I can present some of those questions and their answers.
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Models for Protection Against Injury

How does safety work? That is, given a hazardous situation, how do we prevent injury from that situation?
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Derivation of Ground Impedance

Did you ever wonder why we use 0.1 ohm (and sometimes 0.5 ohm) for the ground impedance value for plug-and-socket connected equipment?
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Power Systems and Polarization

The “power distribution system” is all parts of an electric system between the “bulk power source” and the consumer’s service-entrance equipment.
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Absolute Safety

Recently, a colleague remarked to me, “Philosophically, of course, there is no such thing as absolute safety.” Could this be true? Is there a situation where a man could not possibly injure himself?
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