POWER SUPPLIES & GENERATORS
CHANGING INDUSTRY STANDARDS: FRIEND OR FOE?
Pat McLaughlin, Boulting Technology’s Operations Director, explains how original equipment manufacturers, panel builders, electrical engineers, consulting engineers and contractors can make sure they aren’t caught off guard by the new BS EN 61439 standard.
In 1998, Google was founded, the first Apple iMac was introduced and the legendary Windows ’98 was released by Microsoft. In a less glamorous but equally important corner of industry, a new commission was being formed to revise the complex IEC 60439 industry standard, which governed the safety and performance of electrical switchgear assemblies. Although Windows ‘98 has long been consigned to history, the new industry standard – BS EN 61439 – only became mandatory on November 1, 2014.
The good news for facilities managers, contractors and consulting engineers looking to purchase a switchboard is that all they need to do is make sure their suppliers are compliant with the new standard.
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Unfortunately, original equipment manufacturers and panel builders don’t get off as easily. The BS EN 61439 brings a set of significant changes when it comes to the design and testing of switchboards and switchgear assemblies.
DESIGN VERIFICATION The major change introduced by the
new standard refers to testing. It states that the capabilities of each assembly will be verified in two stages: design verification and routine verification. This means the new standard completely discards the type-tested (TTA) and partially type- tested assemblies (PTTA) categories in favour of design verification.
So, why is design verification a better approach to testing assemblies?
The answer is simple: flexibility and alternative testing routes. Although BS EN 61439 still regards type testing as the preferred option for verifying designs, it also introduces a series of alternative routes to design verification.
“THE NEW STANDARD CONTAINS GUIDANCE ON TEMPERATURE- RISE TESTS.”
The options include using an already verified design for reference, calculation and interpolation. The BS EN 61439 standard specifies that specific margins must be added to the design, when using anything other than type-testing.
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