3 Easy Steps for Picking A Right Electrical Safety Tester

Any electrical products have potential hazards while powering to perform their function; in the worst case, it could kill or severely injure people, damage companies’ reputations, and cause costly recalls. Electrical safety testing often plays a crucial role in ensuring products are safe and maintained high-quality during production. However, there are numerous amounts of instruments available in the market. Customers often seek the best one for their product testing, which is always a challenging question. From the Ikonix experience, the best instrument doesn’t mean right for your production. Over the last 85 years, Ikonix has worked with our customers to provide numerous testing solutions. This article introduces three basic steps every customer must take into account when looking for electrical safety testers.

1.Understand the standard of your testing needs.

There are numerous standards around the world, and they are different across industries and countries. Therefore, you must research your target market and product-related standards to determine which standards apply to your product testing requirements. For example, if your product is IT equipment sold in Europe and America, it must comply with UL/IEC 62368. However, if you plan to sell in China, your product must comply with GB 4943. Once you know which standards your product needs to comply with, you should read it in detail to understand what tests are required to conduct.

2.Understand the testing

When you read the standard, you may frequently see Hipot, insulation resistance, ground bond/continuity, and leakage current tests in the electrical safety section. Understanding those tests will help you easily choose the right tester. If you are not sure what these terminologies are, we have summarized each testing detail below:

  • The Hipot Test (Also known as Dielectric Withstand Test)
    A test that stresses the insulation of a product with a high voltage much higher than the normal operating voltage to ensure it will limit the flow of electric current without breaking down. 
  • Ground Bond Test (Also known as Earth Bonding / Earth Impedance)
    A test applies a high current to the ground pin of the product's line cord and flows through the chassis to verify that the safety ground circuit of a product has a low enough impedance to handle any fault current to the ground.
  • Insulation Resistance
    A test that stresses a product's insulation with DC high voltage and measures the resistance of the insulation to verify the insulation capability of the DUT.
  • Leakage Current Test (Also known as Line Leakage Test)
    A test stresses a product's insulation with DC high voltage and measures the insulation's resistance to verify the DUT's insulation capability.

Because the products’ specifications and usage differ, each standard requires different testing criteria to ensure the end users are safe.

3.Determine the testing parameters; should you go and beyond?

Upon this moment, determine the required test parameters and how to carry out the tests. In most standards, the standard requirements can be slightly different depending on the test type (type and production-line tests). The production-line test (also known as routine tests) may generally increase the testing voltage or current to shorten the test time. Also, some manufacturers would set stricter testing requirements to ensure their products have better safety and quality. Therefore, you should identify your testing purpose to determine if the testing requirement should go beyond. Furthermore, some products operate under hazardous voltage or require a higher level of safety; measuring the testing result in their chassis, power cord, and multiple points, such as exposed conductive parts, is required. Generally speaking, the values on these Hipot testing are often listed as 2-5kVac/dc; some specialty testing may require up to 20kVac/dc. Insulation resistance testing voltage is between 500-1000Vdc. Ground bond testing current is 20-40A. Leakage current test would require DUT to operate under 110% rated voltage 110 to 224Vac. Below is an example of the electrical safety testing standard on medical devices and how to look for the appropriate specification product.

While medical devices operate, they may generate high voltage or current to achieve the curative effect. Also, medical personnel and patients may contact them directly. Therefore, IEC 60601 has more stringent requirements. In a quick testing requirement summary, the ground bond test requires the tester to connect to DUT’s GND and case and apply 25-40A current. The Hipot test requires the tester to connect to the DUT’s L and N terminal and chassis and apply 2.4 * rated voltage + 2400Vac (generally up to 3000Vac). Leakage current has different types; therefore, the testers connect to L, N, and Probe Hi for enclosure leakage current, or L, N and Probe Hi and Probe Lo for applied part leakage, etc. The leakage current should not exceed 10mA. Therefore, to ensure the DUT is safe and in compliance, the right electrical safety tester needs to meet the ground bond testing current of 25A or more, a Hipot testing voltage of 2640Vac or more, and be able to perform multi-point leakage current tests. In the Ikonix product portfolio, in this situation, we will recommend ESA Series and 7006.

Following the above three steps, you should be able to know what features are a must to have when you select the right tester. Ikonix offers different solutions to help you solve this challenge. If you are looking for an all-in-one tester, we have ESA, SE, EST-300, and ESM-500 series.

  • ESA Series Electrical Safety Compliance Analyzer is a 7-in-1 safety analyzer and optional built-in 500VA AC power source for the completed testing conditions.
  • SE Series Electrical Safety Analyzer is the top-selling product of the Ikonix safety tester product line. It is a compact 4-in-1 safety (AC/DC Hipot, IR, and GB) with a 500VA output capacity applicable to most industries that is not required the leakage current test.
  • EST-300 Series Hipot Tester fully integrated AC/DC withstand and insulation resistance testing features into a single tester. It is applicable to some manufacturers who are looking for a simple solution.
  • ESM-500 MultiPRO Electrical Safety Platform is a modular safety tester for the optimal production-line test configuration. The fully modular design greatly reduces maintenance and spare parts costs. Quickly swap the backup module to minimize production downtime. Also, it can conduct the synchronized test with Up to 100 channels.

If you are looking for a tester for specific testing requirements. In that case, we have:

If you have any questions about choosing the right tester, please contact our sales representatives.