Electrical Equipment For Laboratory Use; Part 1: General Requirements

61010A-1

1 Scope and object

1.1 Scope

This International Standard specifies general safety requirements for electrical equipment intended for professional, industrial process, and educational use, including equipment and computing devices for:

- measurement and test;

- control;

- laboratory use;

- accessories intended for use with the above (e.g. sample handling equipment).

This Part 1 of the standard applies to the equipment defined in a) to c) below, when used under the environmental conditions of 1.4.

a) Electrical measurement and test equipmentThis is equipment which by electrical means measures, indicates or records one or more electrical or non-electrical quantities, also non-measuring equipment such as signal generators, measurement standards, power supplies, transducers, transmitters, etc.NOTE - All indicating and recording electrical measuring instruments (except those excluded in 1.1.2) fall within the scope of this standard unless they are panel meters designed only for building-in to other equipment. Built-in panel meters are considered as components and only need to meet the relevant requirements of IEC 1010, or other standards, as part of the equipment into which they are built.

b) Electrical control equipmentThis is equipment which controls one or more output quantities to specific values, with each value determined by manual setting, by local or remote programming, or by one or more input variables.

c) Electrical laboratory equipmentThis is equipment which measures, indicates, monitors or analyses substances, or is used to prepare materials.This equipment may also be used in areas other than laboratories.

1.1 Modification:

Delete "industrial process" and delete the first and second dashes from the first paragraph (UL 61010B-1 and UL 61010C-1apply).

1.1 Addition of the following referencing the National Electrical Code:

This Part 1 of the standard applies to equipment to be employed in accordance with the National Electrical Code, NFPA 70.

1.1.1 Aspects excluded from scope

This Part 1 of the standard does not cover:

- reliable function, performance or other properties of the equipment;

- effectiveness of transport and packaging;

- servicing (repair);

- protection of servicing (repair) personnel.

NOTE - Servicing personnel are expected to be reasonably careful in dealing with obvious hazards, but the design should protect against mishap by the use of warning labels, shields for hazardous voltage TERMINALS, segregation of low-voltage circuits from hazardous voltages, etc. More important, servicing personnel should be trained against unexpected hazards.

1.1.2 Equipment excluded from scope

This Part 1 does not apply to:

- electric power equipment, for example power electronics;

- machine TOOLS and their controls (see IEC 204);

- Class 0, 5, 1 and 2 alternating current watt-hour meters (see IEC 521);

- medical electrical equipment within the scope of IEC 601;

- biological amplifies which link humans to equipment in research or teaching contexts;

- type-tested and partially type-tested assemblies of low-voltage switchgear and controlgear (see IEC 439-1);

- circuits and equipment which are part of the building electrical installation (see IEC 364);

- computers, processors and similar equipment, except as specified in 1.1.3 (see IEC 950);

- transformers separate from the equipment (see IEC 742);

- equipment intended for household use (see IEC 335);

- equipment intended for use in explosive gas atmospheres (see IEC 79).

1.1.3 Computing equipment

This Part 1 applies only to computers, processors, etc., which form part of equipment within the scope of this standard or are designed for use exclusively with the equipment.NOTE - Computing devices and similar equipment within the scope of IEC 950 and complying with its requirements are considered to be suitable for use with equipment within the scope of this Part 1. However, some of the requirements of IEC 950 for resistance to moisture and liquids are less stringent than those in this standard. Where hazards from moisture or liquids could affect equipment which complies with IEC 950 and is used with equipment which complies with this standard, the instructions for use should specify any additional precautions required.

1.2 Object

The purpose of the requirements of this Part 1 is to ensure that the design and methods of construction used provide adequate protection for the OPERATOR and the surrounding area against:

- electric shock or burn (see clauses 6, 10 and 11);

- mechanical hazards (see clauses 7, 8 and 11);

- excessive temperature (see clause 9);

- spread of fire from the equipment (see clause 9);

- effects of radiation, including lasers sources, sonic and ultrasonic pressure (see clause 12);

- liberated gases, explosion and implosion (see clause 13).

NOTE - Attention is drawn to the existence of additional requirements which may be specified by national authorities responsible for health and safety of labor forces.

1.3 Verification

This Part 1 also specifies methods of verifying, through inspection and TYPE TESTING, that the equipment meets the requirements of this standard.NOTE - Requirements for ROUTINE TESTS are given in annex k.

1.4 Environmental conditions

This Part 1 applies to equipment designed to be safe at least under the following conditions:

- indoor use;

- altitude up to 2 000 m, or above 2 000 m if specified by the manufacturer (see clause d.9 for further information);

- temperature 5 C to 40 C;

- maximum relative humidity 80% for temperatures up to 31C decreasing linearly to 50% relative humidity at 40 C;

- mains supply voltage fluctuations not to exceed 10% of the nominal voltage;

- other supply voltage fluctuations as stated by the manufacturer;

- transient overvoltages according to INSTALLATION CATEGORIES (OVERVOLTAGE CATEGORIES) I, II and III (see Annex j). For mains supply the minimum and normal category is II;

- POLLUTION DEGREE 1 or 2 in accordance with IEC 664 (see 3.7.3).

1.4 Addition of the following addressing requirements for extended environments:

Equipment used in extended environments, e.g. outdoors or sheltered locations, shall comply with additional requirements not found in this standard, such as UL 840.