Other requirements in EK1 ITB 2000:2007

Besides its decision in regards to sound-pressure measurement of headphones, other decisions also emerged from the EK1-AG1 meeting in October. One of these decisions addresses ergonomic problems with electronic scales. Modern electronic scales are equipped with displays and input devices. In many working places results displayed by the scales can influence efficiency.

In regards to gloss, clarification was announced. Previous EK1-AG1 test decisions had addressed the issue of gloss for VDUs, computers, and printers. Although in modern visual-display unit workplaces more than the above mentioned equipment is used, manufacturers of respective peripherals have rarely considered this issue. With recent decisions, EK1-AG1 has stipulated that a max. of 20 gloss units may be applied on peripherals in general. This clarification means that, essentially, gloss testing must be conducted for any equipment located in the field of view of a user in a visual-display workplace. Therefore, equipment such as scanners, printers, fax machines, copying machines, external HDDs, external DVD-ROMs, etc., have to be tested accordingly.

A relaxation of testing procedures for keyboards was also decided. Originally, the keycaps for keyboards had to be tested for 5 Mio. times actuation. With a maximum required actuation frequency of 2Hz, the testing time in ideal cases was in fact still around 2 months. In many cases this led to delays which were unacceptable to keyboard buyers.

EK1-AG1, aware of the situation for several years, has tried to eliminate this burden for keyboard manufacturers. Its most recent approach has been to reduce the key cycles for PBT keyboards with laser inscription from 5 Mio. cycles down to 2 Mio. cycles. Following, the minimum contrast must achieve a minimum value of 3.3:1 after 2 Mio. cycles and the gloss of the key caps must be less than 20 gloss units.

In addition to this, EK1-AG1 concluded that for keyboards with laser inscription a reduction of test cycles is possible from 5 Mio. cycles to 4 Mio. cycles. In this event the minimum contrast must reach a minimum 3.3:1 after 4 Mio. cycles and the gloss of the key caps must be less than 20 gloss units.

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