[Amps] IM distortion and such

[Will Matney]

Gary,

You would think being sued is the worst part. What if a disgruntled customer reported you to the state license board? You would then have a review about your engineering license. Here, they beileve the reporter more, and your guilty to them having to prove yourself innocent. If they pull your license, you can no longer be an engineer. If one even says that you can do this over a limit, and they see this, you could sure loose that slip of paper and your stamp. According to how bad it is, or what all the reporter said to them, it could be a temporary suspension all the way to a permenant. It's according to what you can prove. Then, I guess one could find a job as a draftsman or in sales. It's worse today too. People have gotten law suit crazy, and attorneys don't hold no punches back if they think there's extra money they can collect. Even if you fight all this succesfully, how much out of pocket expense did it cost you? Even though things can be done over the limit, I will hardly ever tell someone to do something other than published standards. Heck, if you tell someone to build something some way, and it doesn't work out, you can be in trouble for doing engineering without a license! That is if someone is mad enough to report you. Another thing is if you've designed something to be used by another manufacturer. They will sue for down time if your product caused it. That can run into tons of money. The reason I know about this is I used to have to design and build full scale mock ups or models of our equipment to be used in court cases. I've heard some of the craziest stories about law suits that can be heard. It's a shame to say, but today, people will sue you at the drop of a hat.

Best,

Will


*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 6/26/06 at 8:26 AM Gary Smith wrote:

>Coming from Mr Matney, a most excellent point of view.  Particularly
>where 
>one could be sued into bankruptcy and then oblivion.
>Gary...wa6fgi
>
>
>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "Will Matney" <craxd1 at verizon.net>
>To: <amps at contesting.com>
>Sent: Sunday, June 25, 2006 5:39 PM
>Subject: Re: [Amps] IM distortion and such
>
>
>> It's according to what kind of audio amp. Guitar amps are designed to 
>> purposely introduce distortion. That's where the squeal of the electric 
>> guitar comes from. The bands actually prefer this. However, if one is an 
>> engineer, and you have a maximum rating curve, it is a liability to ever 
>> go outside the curve into the over load region. That's like saying I'll 
>> put my stamp on this bridge which I know is going to deflect more than 
>> allowable published tolerances, and that I think it can get by with the 
>> added stress, even though I am over the maximum curves for tensile and 
>> yield strength. Then an automobile drives over it and falls in the
>river. 
>> Who's liable? Whether electrical or mechanical engineering, an engineer 
>> should always look at this. Though running a tube out of spec probably 
>> wont kill anyone, the manufacturer better be ready to replace tubes or
>the 
>> entire amp if the customer is dissatisfied as a suit will sure follow if 
>> they don't. If ran in spec, one has nothing to worr
>> y about, and has published data to fall back on. This from an engineers 
>> point of view.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Will
>>
>>
>> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>>
>> On 6/25/06 at 4:00 PM k7fm wrote:
>>
>>>Tom said:
>>>
>>>"I think you are really saying an engineer shouldn't ever
>>>design outside what is actually published on a spec sheet
>>>that only covers a limited number of situations under any
>>>condition, even if the component manufacturer, field
>>>history, or direct testing show otherwise."
>>>
>>>It might be easier to grasp what Tom is saying if you think of audio
>>>amplifiers.  Assume a tube manufacturer specifies a tube for audio
>>>distortion.  However, the manufacturer of the audio amplifier is looking
>>>for
>>>minimum distortion.  If he finds that running the tube outside of the
>>>curves
>>>specified by the tube manufacturer gives consistently lower distortion,
>>>then
>>>it would be good engineering to do so.   In some cases, tubes might be
>>>hand
>>>selected for those parameters that met the goals of the engineer.  In
>some
>>>cases, the plate dissipation might be exceeded to get closer to class A.
>>>
>>>Colin  K7FM
>>
>>
>>
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