Two points: To assure the safety of your product consider not whether it is safe if the breaker trips, but what is the failure mode of your product if the breaker (which you do not provide) does not trip. If you rely on the breaker, you need to properly specify it.
In the US, there have been code changes to introduce a new device called an arc fault interrupting breaker which uses RF noise from an arc to trip a breaker at currents below normal overcurrent trip levels. This was introduced because there were many instances where an arc in power cords or similar places would generate enough energy to melt copper and blast it away. The molten copper is capable of starting fires. Often the breaker failed to trip during this momentary fault, and permitted arc tracking to cause repeated cycles of arcs. The message is, some types of failures are not well protected by ordinary overcurrent devices. This may or may not be relevant in your case. Bob Johnson ITE Safety This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: [email protected] with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: [email protected] Dave Heald: [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: [email protected] Jim Bacher: [email protected] Archive is being moved, we will announce when it is back on-line. All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc
