New standard calls for upgraded EMC testing
A
Schaffner product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Aug 21, 2003
A novel buy-back deal will help manufacturers maintain compliance with the latest amendments to the EN61000-4-4 test standard.
The basic standard for testing immunity of electronic equipment to electrical fast transients (EFTs), EN61000-4-4, is soon to change.
This standard was published in 1995 and is used as one of the immunity tests called up in the generic standards and all product-specific standards.
Amendment 2 was published in 2001 and is due to become part of the EN61000-4-4 standard on 1st July 2004.
On this date all of the older generation of EFT testers currently in use will become noncompliant and therefore obsolete.
There has always been ambiguity in the original standard as the EFT pulse shape was only defined into 50ohm load impedance.
This has meant that equipment to be tested with any other input impedance would not actually be tested in conformance with the standard.
Worse still, different manufacturers' test equipments are liable to produce different test waveforms into loads other than 50ohm.
Clearly, the purpose of any standard and the equipment to test to it is to produce accurate and equally importantly repeatable test conditions.
With the original wording of the standard there has always been concern that this is not the case.
There have been a number of attempts to overcome this problem, culminating in the adoption of Amendment 2, which defines the pulse shape into 1kohm as well as 50ohm.
This overcomes the loading problem and making the standard now truly repeatable.
When the amended standard comes into force most existing test equipment will not meet the additional pulse shape requirement.
Schaffner is offering a service to anyone carrying out EFT testing in which it will advise if test equipment currently being used, from any manufacturer at all, will meet the requirements of EN61000-4-4 including Amendment 2.
Should any such test equipment be found to be noncompliant Schaffner is also offering to buy back the redundant equipment, again from any manufacturer, against the purchase of a new, compliant Schaffner product.
This offer is not only open to existing Schaffner customers but to the whole EMC testing community.
Andrew Kotas, Marketing Manager explains: "Schaffner has always been concerned at the ambiguity in this standard and we are pleased to see this amendment finally implemented.
Our latest generation testers offer cost effective test solutions and we hope that this offer will assist test labs to maintain their integrity in the most economical way".
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