Electrical safety

Electrical safety testing is essential to ensure safe operating standards for any product that uses electricity. Various governments and agencies have developed stringent requirements for electrical products that are sold world-wide. In most markets it is mandatory for a product to conform to safety standards promulgated by safety and standard agencies such as UL, CE, VDE, CSA, BSI, CCC and so on. To conform to such standards, the product must pass safety tests such as the high voltage test (also called as Dielectric voltage-withstand test or high potential test), Insulation Resistance Test, Ground (Earth) Bond & Ground Continuity Test & Leakage Current Test (also called as Line Leakage Test, Earth Leakage Current Test, Enclosure Leakage Current Test or Patient Leakage Current Test). These tests are described in IEC 60335, IEC 61010 and many other national and international standards.

In general, IEC 60335 is the most widely applied standard for electrical safety testing, especially for domestic appliances. Many safety testing standards in the world have been based on it. To safeguard workplace health and safety, many sections of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation provide guidelines on electrical safety and the appropriate equipment required to work on low and high voltage electrical appliances.

This test is carried out by applying a significantly higher than operating voltage to the device under test. In this test, the insulation of a product, stressed to a greater extent than under normal operating conditions, should not be breached for the product to pass. In most cases, the device is stressed to twice its normal operating voltage. During type testing, i.e. testing during designing a product or for a double insulated product, however, much larger voltage may be applied. For all electrical products, the high voltage test is a universal test, meaning that every unit should pass before it can be used.

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