IEC 62368-1:2018 Audio/Video, Information and Communication Technology Equipment – Part 1: Safety Requirements
Differences Between 60950 and 62368:
- There are significantly more details about the enclosures and the materials of construction. Here the primary focus is on preventing fire in the enclosure.
- The next difference is temperature…over temperature devices, and more detail on those and requirements. Also, internal transformers get a serious working over to improve safety performance, and there’s a lot more detail in the new requirements.
- Since this is more of a consumer-oriented standard significantly more detail is required on the safety labels and markings. A lot of time is spent on the new standard on safe power supplies (SELV types). These protective power supplies are given a lot more requirements and detail as well.
There truly is a lot more detail on prevention of fire including protecting from dropped conductive materials like a screw or wire or something like that being dropped in and then faulting equipment or causing a short. 4. This next change is not as critical, and the drop-testing requirement went from 5 kg to 7 kg.
- The old standard 60950 did not really have a lot of detail on the use of chemicals; typically we would need to bring in a different standard. In the new standard, there is a significant amount of new detail and requirements on the use of materials and chemicals.
Why Are IEC 60950-1 & 60065 Being Replaced With IEC 62368?
IEC 62368 was developed to replace the old prescriptive approaches, of IEC 60065 and IEC 60950-1, to more readily and adequately address innovative and evolving technologies that have heretofore outpaced the responsiveness of the standards development communities.
Transition from the Legacy Standards into HBSE (Hazard Based Safety Evaluation)
The Legacy Standards (60950-1 & 60065) have been mostly replaced by the HBSE Standard 62368-1.
The Clock is Ticking and we move into the next decade, it will be increasingly more difficult to justify using the legacy standards.