product improvements for safety and quality. An example is our Product Safety Risk Assessment process based on the common Failure Mode & Effects Analysis (FMEA) tool. The feedback about our products we get from users has also led to key improvements. External factors play an important role when looking at the entire chain of events in a dangerous situation. So, user feedback helps us better understand the problem, which in turn supports us in defining appropriate actions to prevent it from occurring. How did you come up with the idea of a new ground spike? Paul: The ground spike is used to qualify the grounding condition inside and outside the substation. One critical point is that the ground spike can be unsupervised during an injection cycle. This is because the ground spike is inserted some distance from the operator controlling the test, which means the ground spike is accessible to other people who may not understand the electric shock risk. We improved the design to minimize this risk. The ground spike handle now has an isolated cover, reducing access to the conducting parts. The isolated cover is red and has a hazard icon to indicate danger. By doing this, we have lowered the risk of electric shock to people who may come across it when tests are being performed. In addition, we took the opportunity to make the design more convenient for users by adding a banana plug instead of a crocodile clamp for the connection. Josef, a grounding rod looks simple. What was the biggest technical challenge in developing the new ground spike? Josef: The most difficult challenge was the impact strength of the material required. Depending on soil conditions, a hammer may be necessary to drive in the spike. This must work reliably, even at very low temperatures. We needed plastic approved worldwide for this environment that offered sufficient insulation and could handle the practical stress mechanically. Finding a satisfactory material that fulfilled all three requirements was difficult. Were there also other challenges? Josef: One other challenge was the technical implementation in which a metal construction is encased in a plastic injection molding process in one 20
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