Preparing for IEC 62368-1 Implementation

Hello! First we would like to thank you for making time to listen to this presentation. Today, we will be discussing preparing for adoption of safety regulation IEC 62368.

We will start with some background regarding IEC 62368. The IEC is an international standards group. IEC is an abbreviation for International Electrotechnical Commission. This group creates and publishes standards addressing many different product safety topics. In discussing 62368, this presentation will address ITE, audio, and video equipment. ITE, or Information Technology Equipment, is currently addressed by IEC 60950. You may also hear ITE referred to as ICT, which is Information and Communications Technology equipment, and the concepts are interchangeable. Audio/video equipment is currently addressed by regulation IEC 60065.

62368 is significant because, in addition to addressing equipment from two separate safety documents, 62368 entails a fundamental shift to hazard-based from incident-based safety standards. We will try to better explain the concept of hazard-based safety in the next few slides.

In this slide, we will address why hazard-based safety engineering is used. As was previously mentioned, IEC 62368 is written to conform to hazard-based safety engineering principles. For the rest of this presentation, we will refer to hazard-based safety engineering as HSBE. As such HSBE identifies potential hazards and determines safety procedures to address the hazards. Previously, safety solutions prescribed safety procedures and regulatory documents independent of specific products. By prescribe, we mean specific safety procedures are specified for all products. IEC 62368 describes guidelines for a safe product rather than prescribing implementations for safe products. By describe, we mean the regulations describe the objective of the safety procedure and how it can be addressed.

Let us now look at some guiding principles of HSBE as it applies to IEC 62368. As it is a safety regulation, the overall purpose of this regulation is to protect users from hazards associated with products. HSBE descriptive guidelines have basic steps to follow. First, identify energy sources associated with the product. Some examples would be: some products are powered directly from ac wall power, or other projects may have their input power from a wall adapter. Second step is to understand the energy levels associated with the energy sources previously identified. Again, using the examples we just mentioned, ac wall power can typically provide more than one kilowatts at 100 volts or greater, whereas wall adapter output power may provide only a few watts at a few tens of volts or less. The third step in these guiding principles is to determine whether the energy from the sources is hazardous. Using the examples we've already mentioned, the wall power with one kilowatt or greater is hazardous under almost all conditions, whereas the wall adapter with a few watts will be safe under many conditions. An example where it's safe is a few tens of volts will not be hazardous when just touched by bare human hands. The final step in the guiding principles is to ensure that proper protections are in place. Never allow the operator to touch the wall power conductors, since they present a hazardous power level, whereas since the wall adapter is not deemed a hazardous power level, no protections will necessarily be required for the lower voltages and lower power conductors associated with the wall power output. As an apology for those paying close attention to some of the terminology in this slide, please ignore the mixing of the concepts of power and energy - they shouldn't truly be interchangeable, although they were interchanged in this slide.

At this time, we will discuss the scope of IEC 62368 safety regulations. Every product team will need to look at the 62368 specifications to determine if these regulations apply to their products. 62368 applies to a broad range of ICT - that is Information and Communication Technology - equipment you will find and also to audio/video equipment. You will find these in the home environment in the form of televisions, home theater, computers, monitors, routers, and other similar equipment. 62368 applies to equipment found in school offices and classrooms in the form of digital projectors, computers, monitors, routers, and again, other similar equipment. Similarly a business or work office space may contain the following products which will require 62368 safety certifications. These products include computers, monitors, routers, copiers, and other similar equipment.

Confusion often arises in understanding the dates for compliance to IEC 62368. IEC 62368 is mandatory for some products in some countries as of December 20th of this year, 2020. The countries included in the December 20th compliance date are the US, Canada, the European Union, and the United Kingdom. There are other countries which have set later compliance dates. Some countries will accept 62368 certifications before it is required, including before it is required in their locality, and some countries do not yet accept 62368 safety certifications and will not accept them until their compliance date. So, some products being produced will need safe system certifications addressing both 62368 and legacy regulations. For this reason, you should be talking with your vendors, such as CUI, to ensure that you have the correct regulatory certifications for the different international markets that will be served at different times.

We suggest a few things to remember as a quick summary of this presentation. First off, safety regulation IEC 62368 supersedes safety regulations 60950 and 60065. Some countries will require 62368 on some products as of December 20th of this year, 2020. CUI already offers many power supplies with IEC 62638 certification, so as to accommodate the needs of products being released in those markets this year. Some countries, as mentioned, will not require 62368 until a later date. Some of those countries will accept 62368 certifications until then, some of them will require legacy certifications until then, and so for those products that require the legacy certification, CUI will continue to offer power supplies with legacy certifications. Our suggestion is to talk with your local regulatory agency to ensure that you understand their interpretation of the situation. The technical and sales staff at CUI will also work with you to understand the requirements for your products and help provide guidance.