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Frequently Asked Questions:
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What information should I provide for a Certification or CE Marking quote?
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Do I need to consider IEC 60825-1 or compliance to the CDRH?
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What is the difference between clearance and creepage distances?
Our Quicker to Market Program is a program specifically catered to design teams who can't afford to lose valuable time or incur additional costs at certification time. The program is fully customizable to suit your specific needs, but typically Lamothe Approvals provides seminars in the beginning stage of the design, regular meetings with the designers to provide assistance and guidance during the design stage (enclosure design tips, component selection assistance, etc.) and we will test your prototype against the standard requirements to make sure it complies! After the final evaluation is complete, Lamothe Approvals will provide you with a complete package you can provide to the certification agency (such as UL or CSA) to fast-track your certification. Click here for further details.
Our many years of experience has enabled us to see the many product safety design flaws many manufacturers often overlook. Most manufacturers emphasize the functionality of the equipment and overlook some key details including:
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insufficient grounding (earthing) methods
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inadequate clearance and creepage distance on printed wiring boards
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selecting power supplies without adequate certifications
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incorporating transformers lacking the required internal spacing
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choosing components not suitable according to the IEC/EN/UL/CSA safety standard
The question really is: do you want to identify all the problem areas when you are still designing the product, or identify them later? A design review, or pre-certification testing, will save you unnecessary stress, time and money! This leads to a flawless certification process, which means we make you look good!
Seminars are held at your facility or ours. Each seminar is customized to fit your specific needs, and covers a variety of design and technical considerations relating to your products and knowledge level. Regardless of where the seminar is held, you have the option to bring products into the seminar room to aid in discussions.
We have held public seminars in the past, however, in our experience we found that seminars are more effective if they are specifically tailored to your individual needs, usually including a product review.
We do offer webinars of varying topics. See our seminars page for further details.
Every product is different, so it is impossible to provide you with a complete list of items you need to provide. Here is a typical list to get you started:
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Type of equipment and model number(s)
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Marketing literature, pictures or manual
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Description of how the equipment is powered
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Description of how the equipment is used and differences between models (if applicable)
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Component certification details - power supplies, transformers, batteries, modems, etc.
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List of alternate components
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Enclosure details
IEC 60950-1 (2005) Second Edition is the latest version of the safety standard for Information Technology Equipment (ITE). It covers mains-powered or battery-powered IT equipment including electrical business equipment and associated equipment. It also applies to telecommunication network equipment (i.e. modems, telephones, etc.) and cable distribution system equipment. Additionally, many power supplies are evaluated to this standard.
The European Union adopted IEC 60950-1 as EN 60950-1 (2005)
Second Edition. The
IEC 61010-1 Second Edition (2001) is the latest version of the safety standard for Measurement, Control and Laboratory Equipment. It is used for electrical test and measurement equipment (equipment that tests, measures, indicates, records, generates signals, etc.), electrical control equipment (equipment that controls output quantities), electrical laboratory equipment (equipment that measures, indicates, monitors, analyses, preparation, etc.) and all associated accessories.
The European Union adopted IEC 61010-1 as EN 61010-1 Second
Edition (2001). The
IEC 60825-1 is the safety standard for lasers and LED's. The CDRH (which is part of the FDA in the US) is only needed for lasers.
In today's market, manufacturers are selling their products internationally, which means gaining safety certification marks (if required) for each country they wish to sell in. Before the CB Scheme, the Certifying Agency in each country would conduct testing on the product. When many countries adopted the same IEC standards, this meant that each agency was performing identical evaluations and testing! With the CB Scheme, a manufacturer can take their product to their local Certifying Agency, obtain a CB Report (an evaluation of the product against the safety standard including test results) and take this report to other country agencies for their certification to avoid retesting. This can save manufacturers much time and reduces cost.
Pollution degree is a category assigned to the type of environment your equipment will be installed in. It rates the type of pollution (dust, dirt, etc) that may be in contact with the insulation within the equipment. There are four levels ranging from Pollution Degree 1 (no pollution, or only dry, non-conductive pollution such as in a clean room or hermetically sealed locations) to Pollution Degree 4 (environment with a high degree of pollution, such as outdoor use). The higher the pollution degree, the worse the environment. For obvious reasons, the creepage distance required for safety will need to be greater to account for increased pollution.
Installation category (or overvoltage category) is a category assigned to the transients found on the power line. There are four installation categories ranging from Installation Category I (low level spikes potentially found in secondary circuits) to Installation Category IV (very high level spikes found in overhead power lines). The higher the Installation Category, the greater the required clearance distance.
Creepage distance is the distance along a surface between two live or conductive parts. Imagine two traces on a printed wiring board. If the distance between these two traces is too small, tracking along the board surface might occur. The distance between those two traces, measured along the printed wiring board surface, is called creepage distance.
Clearance is different from creepage distance, because it also includes spacing through air. Arcing through air can occur when two live parts are too close together. Clearance can be measured along a surface of a printed wiring board similar to creepage distance, but it can also be measured as the air gap between a printed wiring board and another part such as the chassis.
The IEC published IEC 60664 "Insulation Coordination for Equipment Within Low-Voltage Systems" which defined creepage distance and clearance requirements. Some standards (such as IEC 60204-1) do not include tables for creepage distance and clearances, opting instead to refer the user to IEC 60664 to figure it out themselves. Note that just because the tables are not included in the standard does not mean that they are not applicable! Other standards (such as IEC 60950-1 and IEC 61010-1) have creepage distance and clearance tables included in the standard for easy reference. Sometimes the tables in each of these standards are different from other standards. This is why it is important to know what safety standard will be applied to your product when you are designing the product!
IEC 60529 describes ratings for enclosure Ingress
Protection (IP) covering water, foreign objects and access to hazardous
parts. They are similar in intent to the ratings used by the
National Electrical Manufacturer's Association (NEMA) in