IEC 950

CENELEC EN 60950 (UL 1950)

690-258B

IEC 950
CENELEC EN 60950 (UL 1950)
Contents CENELEC EN 60950 (IEC 950) Safety of information technology equipment including electrical business equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 Shock hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2 Insulation and grounding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3 Electrical discharge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4 Leakage current . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 5 Switching and fusing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 6 Flammability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 7 Electrical ratings and testing for safety a) Dielectric strength test (Hi Pot) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 b) Overvoltage transient test (Surge) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Abstract of IEC 950 (Table 1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Applicable power distribution systmes (Table 2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Schaffner EMV AG

CH-4542 Luterbach/Switzerland

CENELEC* EN 60950 (IEC 950) Safety of information technology equipment including electrical business equipment

Equipment versus components This new CENELEC standart, familiarly referred as IEC 950, is the primary safety standard which must be met by electronic equipment if it is to be sold into the European Union after December 31, 1992.The standard is intended to control equipment and is not a component standard. Therefore, although a power line EMI filter (such as made by Schaffner) can be designed and built in accordance with IEC 950, it is not possible to have a formal IEC 950 approval granted for such a filter. Underwriters lab standard UL 1950 is intended to be in harmony with EN 60950, although at this time a few small differences still seem to exist and approval by UL to UL 1950 does not automatically certify the equipment under EN 60950. The following is an outline of the key parts of IEC 950. It is intended to help Schaffner customers identify areas in which IEC 950 requirements differ from past practices and is not a complete description of the entire regulation.

*CENELEC = Comit Europen de Normalisaion ELECtrotechnique

Shock hazards

Within IEC 950, equipments are classified according to their method of protection against electric shock. IEC 950, like previous UL and VDE requirements, differentiates between equipment powered by voltage sources at levels dangerous to humans and which is powered at a sufficiently low voltage to be inherently safe from shock perspective. In IEC 950 this voltage level (Safety Extra Low Level or SELV) is defined as 60Vdc or 42.4V peak, which permits 48Vdc circuits (such as those powering telephone systems from batteries) to be designed under more lenient SELV rules. These SELV designs are called Class III insulation systems under IEC 950. Class II equipment provides protection with additional insulation such as double or reinforced insulation. There should be no provision for protective earthing or reliance upon installation conditions. Class I equipment provides protection by using basic insulation and providing a means of connection to the protective earthing conductor in the building wiring. Class I or Class II systems require careful mechanical and interlock design to avoid shock hazards. Their insulation requirements are summarised in table 1 (page 7).

Insulation and grounding

Class I systems, which include almost all of the equipment designs likely to use Schaffner filters, are controlled by the standard insulation practices of IEC 664 and require any accessible conducting material to be connected back to a saftey ground or earth connection. Further, if the equipments is connected to ground via the power line and the neutral conductor in the power line is also tied back to ground, the system is considered a TN power system. A TT power system has the equipment grounded independently of the power line but the neutral wire in the power line still ties back to ground. Finally, an IT system has the equipment grounded independently of the power line and the neutral wire in the power line has, at best, a high impedance to ground. These three basically different power distribution systems have their base schematic shown in table 2 (page 8).

Electrical discharge

Even when a piece of equipment is not connected to the power system a shock hazard can exist due to stored energy in capacitors. IEC 950 recommends that these capacitors reach a safe level in a short time, either 1 second or 10 seconds depending upon how the power is connected. In many cases this requires the use of discharge resistors. Schaffner filters are designed to discharge in 1 second or less to make them suitable for all IEC 950 applications. The use of discharge resistors for this test however causes problems when an equipment goes under hi pot testing for IEC 950. In such cases the resistor can be subjected to over 2000 volts for 1 minute. This greately exceeds the resistors power rating. To perform this test IEC 950 allows that discharge resistors be removed. Schaffner will supply such filters for type testing; these filters are designated with a T in their part number. For example: required filter FN 9675-3-06 for hi pot type test FN 9675T-3-06

Leakage current

A piece of equipment can produce leakage current which can be a hazard if it is allowed to become excessive. Because of this potential hazard IEC 950 limits the amount of leakage current. All Class II equipment may only produce a maximum of 0.25mA. The leakage current for class I type equipment can vary from 0.75mA to maximum of 5% of input current. Power line filters are a source of leakage current. Schaffner filters for IEC 950 applications are designed to meet the requirements and leave sufficient safety margin for other sources of leakage withih the equipment itself.

Switching and fusing

A major question raised by IEC 950 is whether switching and fusing elements must disconnect one or two conductors in a single phase circuit. In multi-phase circuits all hot phases must be disconnected by switches, circuit breakers and/ or fuses, and for IT circuits, the neutral line must also be disconnected. But, on

normal single phae circuits, if the grounded neutral line can be reliably identified, only the hot phase line need be switched and fused. An argument can be made that in the U.S., with NEMA 5-15 three-wire plugs and sockets, the neutral wire is well identified. But this is not the case throughout Europe, especially in places like Italy or Spain. Thus, for all practical purposes, IEC 950 requires double contact switching and fusing for all equipment which might be used in Europe. Schaffner recommends double fuse holders for all new designs using power entry module filters, since it is possible to bypass one of the holders for equipment to be solely used in North America single fusing is desired. Single pole switches may be used for strictly ON/OFF functions, as long as other means exist for power line disconnect (IEC 320 plug, etc.).

Flammability

In accordance with IEC 950 flammability requirements all Schaffner components for IEC 950 applications have class V2 flammability as a minimum, in most cases the filters are class V0. IEC 950 gives V0 better than V1, and V1 better than V2. For components IEC 950 recommends a minimum of V2.

7 a)

Electrical ratings and testing for safety Dielectric strength tests (Hi Pot)

Accross the line components in a Class I system (like Schaffner filters) must withstand 1500Vac or 2121Vdc (preferred when capacitors are under test) for one minute from phase to phase or phase to neutral (X caps), as well as from phase/ neutral to ground (Y caps), as long as working voltages are below 250Vac. With IT class system rated 220Vac (as in France), a phase to ground failure can impose 400Vac to another phase, which may require Y caps in an IT system to meet a 1875Vac or 2650Vdc one minute test (this requirement is still under debate). The above is a drscription of the ratings requirements. Detailed manufacturing test conditions have not been fully specified as yet, but are anticipated to the 1 or 2 sec tests in production, this at 80% of the rated value.

b)

Overvoltage transient test (Surge)

Many safety testing agencies interpret IEC 950 to require that all accross-theline components conform to the Insulation Coordination limitations of IEC 664. IEC 664, in turn, requires that appliances, computers and other such low voltage/line power devices (defined as Installation Category II) be capable of safely handling 2500V transients. IEC 384-14 and in Europe the EN 132400 call up the following capacitor types X1, X2, Y1 and Y2. Amendment A2 of IEC 950 (August 1993) defines the following capacitor types which can be connected across the line: X1 capacitors X2 capacitors X2 capacitors

tested as X1 but with 2.5kV surge which meet endurance tests with the 220 resistor short circuit

The X capacitors used in Schaffner filters are in general X2 capacitors, all with SEV approval, which means a 3kV test has been carried out. These capacitors comply then with the amendment A2 of IEC 950. With the introduction of the EN component standards for capacitors and filters there is a certain harmonisation between standards.

Abstract of IEC 950 Test voltage for electric strength tests-Table XV

For detailed applicable test conditions refer to IEC 950 or to a harmonised standard. Table 1 7

Applicable power distribution systems

Table 2 8

Corporate Headquarters Schaffner EMV AG Nordstrasse 11 CH-4542 Luterbach/Switzerland Phone +41 (032) 68 16 626 www.schaffner.com

Subsidiary companies Finland Schaffner Electro Ferrum Oy Phone +358 19 326 616 Fax +358 19 326 610 France Schaffner EMC S.A.S. Phone +33 1 34 34 30 60 Fax +33 1 39 47 02 28 Germany Schaffner EMV GmbH Phone +49 721 569 10 Fax +49 721 569 110 Italy Schaffner EMC S.r.l. Phone +39 02 66 04 30 45 Fax +39 02 61 23 943 Sweden Schaffner EMC AB Phone +46 8 57 92 11 21 Fax +46 8 92 96 90 Switzerland Schaffner EMV AG Phone +41 32 68 16 626 Fax +41 32 68 16 641
Printed in Switzerland in August 2002 Albrecht, Obergerlafingen

United Kingdom Schaffner EMC Ltd. Phone +44 118 977 0070 Fax +44 118 979 2969 China Schaffner Beijing Liaison Office Phone +86 10 6510 1761/62 Fax +86 10 6510 1763 Japan Schaffner EMC K.K. Phone +81 3 3418 5822 Fax +81 3 3418 3013 Singapore Schaffner EMC Pte. Ltd. Phone +65 6377 3283 Fax +65 6377 3281 USA Schaffner EMC Inc. Phone +1 732 225 9533 Fax +1 732 225 4789