nach außen Strom führen

11:43 Sep 5, 2017 

Yeah, funny how that works...

11:30 Sep 5, 2017 

Anytime. I had to giggle considering that you're translating into English a document that contains a translation error from EN to DE--all a bit confusing, isn't it?

Best

10:01 Sep 5, 2017 

für die rege Diskussion zum Thema. Ich habe mich für "exposed live parts" entschieden. Das passte zum Text recht gut.

09:59 Sep 5, 2017 

Thank you for the explanation and links.

23:08 Sep 4, 2017 

You may find this one interesting:
https://www.weka.at/arbeitssicherheit/News/Not-Aus-ist-nicht...

Apparently, there were some translation errors from English to German and your German term of "Not-Halt," which is for shutting down a machine, was wrongly used to mean cutting off electricity supply--which is supposed to be called "Not-Aus." This should have little impact on the question asked, but I thought it might be of use.

Additionally, I've found two links confirming Richard's explanation (in combination with "Not-Aus," of course):
"Damit können Personen gerettet werden, die mit lebensbedrohenden
Spannungen in Berührung gekommen sind."
https://www.media-broadcast.com/fileadmin/Downloads/Radio/An...

"Bei Unfällen durch elektrischen Strom ist sofort der NOT – AUS - Schalter zu betätigen. Sobald der
Verunglückte nicht mehr mit Spannung in Berührung steht[...]"
https://www.oth-aw.de/files/oth-aw/Professoren/Grueger/labor...

Could be that not all outbound live parts are exposed (not that I'm providing you both with a bad suggestion here), but I haven't found the exact phrase on any page, really.

Best

17:30 Sep 4, 2017 

As said, I do understand. This is also true for science papers. I think in this context, it's a bullet item and they merely nominalized the verb--as is done in other fields too. Many IT documents listing functions show the same kind of writing style: a simple "Enhance/Update/Set up/Install" in English and a noun or nominalized verb in German (Optimierung or Optimieren/Aktualisierung or Aktualisieren/Installation or Installieren). Sometimes, it can get complicated, as some nouns in these lists cannot be turned into verbs (because they describe the function itself rather than what you can do with it or why it benefits you), so you may even have to add something in EN.

Best and have a great evening!

16:55 Sep 4, 2017 

to imply that Germans are uneducated. On the contrary, the average educational level in Germany is probably much higher than in the US. Education is also esteemed in Germany, as opposed to the US. But this is also the reason why many technicians (many of whom have a master's degree in engineering) want to write using a style which they perceive as "highly educated" in terms of classical education or liberal arts. They frequently end up writing extremely complicated sentences, which could be expressed much more simply.
And you are correct: The expression could be simplified further by using "exposed" instead of the long relative clause. QED

16:43 Sep 4, 2017 

I don't think you meant to imply that virtually all Germans are uneducated; this is the simplest solution here. I understand your comment about a "German's love for the passive voice," but this isn't one of those cases. It's a nominalized verb.

Cf "Aktualisierung der Bewegungsdaten," where you might just start with "Update..." in English (as seen in marketing documents in the business software industry).

This isn't an instruction either. It's the explanation of a function. The long version is: "Der Schalter ermöglicht es, alle Spannungsteile, die nach außen Strom führen, abzuschalten."

That's a long sentence, so you get rid off "ermöglicht" and "abzuschalten" and just say "Stromlosschaltung/zum Stromlosschalten."

Actually, you don't need the whole relative clause. The entire sentence bit just means "exposed live parts": http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r6/oeb/IASelecSafety.pdf

This is the DOE term:
"Capable of being inadvertently touched or approached nearer than a safe distance by a person. It is applied to parts that are not suitably guarded, isolated, or insulated."
https://definedterm.com/exposed_live_parts

15:00 Sep 4, 2017 

This is another typical example of how German technicians love to use nouns in a passive sentence with an auxiliary (i.e. meaningless) verb instead of using an active sentence with a meaningful verb. They seem to think it sounds "educated". I have to change these things all the time, to make them sound half way decent in English. "Switching off the power must be accomplished to eliminate the possibility of electric shocks" instead of "Switch off the power, if you don't want to get shocked, stupid!"

14:50 Sep 4, 2017 

I guess it's just the bad construction of the German sentence that threw me.

14:14 Sep 4, 2017 

is always good, I think this statement is pretty clear as it stands. It is a standard warning/instruction to switch off the electricity, so no one will be shocked. I've seen similar instructions many times.

14:09 Sep 4, 2017 

It might help to get a little more context.