Technical documentation for electrical engineering 

That depends on whether an individual piece of equipment, an assembly or a complete system is being documented. Depending on the product, operating, assembly and install­ation instruct­ions, technical data, circuit diagrams, connection information, bills of materials, test and conformity documents as well as maintenance information may be required. Not all documents are issued to the same recipients. Therefore, it should be clarified at an early stage which information is required internally and which must accompany the product.

This cannot be answered solely on the basis of the industry designation. The decisive factors are the specific product, its voltage range, its function, its integration and the intended market. Depending on the case, for example the Low Voltage Directive, the EMC Directive, the Machinery Directive or, in future, the Machinery Regulation, or further requir­em­ents, may be relevant. In addition, there are product- and application-specific standards. The applicable requir­em­ents should therefore be system­at­ic­ally identified and documented for each product.

That depends on its function, its scope of delivery and the type of provision. A control cabinet can be placed on the market as a standalone switchgear assembly or integrated as electrical equipment in a machine or system. This can result in different functions and different requir­em­ents for cert­if­ic­ates and docum­ent­ation. Before the start of the project, it should therefore be clarified who is the manuf­act­urer of the respective product and which documents must be provided by component suppliers, control cabinet builders and system integrators.

Engineering data are important sources, but not autom­at­ic­ally compreh­ens­ible user docum­ent­ation. First, it must be clarified which information a target group actually needs for install­ation, connection, comm­iss­ioning, troubl­esh­ooting or maintenance. Relevant information is then selected, explained and linked to the respective instruction steps. Particular attention must be paid to clear equipment identifiers, connections, versions and validity.

The documents for the components must match the actual installed version and be clearly assignable. In addition, the overall docum­ent­ation needs information on interfaces, interaction of components, central protective measures and higher-level operating or maintenance procedures. A loose collection of all manuf­act­urer documents is often not sufficient for this. It must be recogn­is­able which information applies to which component and to which system status.

A change may affect technical data, connections, operating procedures, diagnostics, spare parts and safety information. Therefore, not only the directly modified document should be considered. First, it must be determined which information products and language versions are affected. Subs­eq­uently, validity, review and approval are documented in a traceable manner. In the case of changes that are relevant to safety or conformity, an additional prof­ess­ional assessment must be made as to which evidence and decl­ar­at­ions need to be adjusted.

Electrical specialists require, for example, details about connection, protective measures, testing, troubl­esh­ooting and safe working on electrical parts. Operators, on the other hand, need clear information on proper use, on displays, operating states and on how to behave in the event of faults. The docum­ent­ation should not mix these roles. Activities, qual­if­ic­at­ions and limits must be clearly specified so that tasks are not carried out by people who are not intended to perform them.