Low voltage directive electrical safety testing

摘要

The Low Voltage Directive provides a uniform Community wide product safety level for electrical equipment, requiring that in normal use and under any foreseeable misuse products must not offer any danger to people, domestic animals or property. The LVD applies to all electrical equipment and products with an intrinsic function and an input voltage of 50 to 1000VAC or 75 to 1500VDC and any output voltages as well. It requires proof of good design practice, safety-critical component selection, safe enclosure design, circuit layout and risk analysis. Insulation and earth are the two barriers against electrocution in electrical equipment. Standard testing is designed to ensure they are there in sufficient levels to prevent death. But in addition to this, companies must be aware of the fact that the Standards to which equipment has to be designed, built and tested are in fact specific to individual types of products and their industries or areas of use, such as EN 61010 for laboratory, test and control equipment or EN 60950 for IT and office equipment. Flexible test equipment with wide parameter settings is a clear advantage here compared to the inefficient and wasteful use of several sets of instruments to perform the same tests to different levels. This required versatility is demonstrated by the Sefelec MG Series of safety test instruments from Cropico, developed with extensive parameter selection in response to the demands of electrical standards testing.