EN 60 950 Finally Expired: MTM Power's Decision on Succeeding Standards

After several prolongations of the transition period, the standard EN 60950 finally expired on 20 December 2020. Since that date, the official succeeding standard is EN 62368-1 as solely applicable standard for Safety Requirements of Audio/Video, Information and Communication Technology Equipment - Part 1.

For decades, EN 60950-1 "Information Technology Equipment - Safety - Part 1: General Requirements" was the dominating standard applied to electrical safety of AC/DC and DC/DC power supplies in Europe. Besides the fact that there had been no standard for electronic power supplies being widely accepted in all kinds of industries, the reason to refer to this standard also resulted from the fact that IT equipment was the first market segment to use switch-mode power supplies, and this particular standard, for the first time, considered mostly all aspects of electrical safety of any equipment. Although within the scope of EN 60950-1 there had been made almost no reference to industrial applications, this standard had been nonetheless applied to the majority of industrial power supplies.

Digitalisation has started to diminish the formerly existing differentiation between audio/video and IT products. The creation of EN 62368-1 as a common standard for both product groups pays respect to this trend, and for the first time this new standard takes into account an evaluation of equipment's safety based on risk.

Besides EN 62368-1 there is a number of other standards which can be used for the evaluation of equipment's safety, such as EN 60336-1 (household appliances), EN 60601-1 (medical electrical equipment) or EN 61010 "Safety Requirements for Electrical Equipment for Measurement, Control and Laboratory Use - Part 1: General Requirements"

As a manufacturer of high-end industrial power supplies, MTM Power® considers its customers and their applications being mainly in industrial environment. Hence, we decided to prove electrical safety of our products according to EN 61010-1 and to apply EN 62368-1 to those of our product groups applications of which are unambiguously within the scope of this standard. Being a harmonised standard, EN 61010-1 allows declaration of conformity as regards the low voltage directive.

MTM Power® started the certification process according to EN 62368-1 and EN 61010-1 early enough to show valid proof of device safety to either of these standards after expiration of EN 60950-1 and to declare entire CE conformity.

EN 62368-1 also contains an important information for our customers: The standard explicitly allows the use of components, such as AC/DC and DC/DC power supplies, certified according to IEC 60950-1 in existing end devices.

MTM Power® will be more than pleased to answer all your questions connected to this topic. Please contact us by phone (+49 36705 688-0 ) or mail to standards@mtm-power.com

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