Safety of measurement, control and laboratory equipment - tri-national adoption of IEC 61010-1.
The standard covers three groups of products: (a) electrical test and measurement equipment that tests, measures, indicates or records electrical or physical quantities, including signal generators, laboratory power supplies and transducers; (b) electrical industrial-process control equipment that regulates output quantities to values set manually, by programming or by input variables; and (c) electrical laboratory equipment, including in-vitro diagnostic equipment.
The standard covers protection against electric shock and burns, mechanical hazards, spread of fire, excessive temperature, effects of fluids and pressure, radiation (including laser radiation), released gases, explosion and implosion.
It does not cover products within the scope of IEC 60065, 60204, 60335, 60364, 60439, 60601, 60950 (with exceptions), 61558, 61010-031 and 61243-3.
UL 61010-1 certification (UL Listed or UL Recognized, commonly cULus) approves measurement, control or laboratory equipment for the US and Canadian markets as a safe product under installation-code and OSHA/NRTL requirements; the tri-national edition allows one report to cover both countries.
Measurement transducers, signal isolators and process indicators fall within categories (a) and (b), which is why their datasheets cite this standard instead of UL 508. In the EU, the UL certificate has no formal legal effect; tests performed to the common IEC text can allow some results to be reused in both assessments.
The standard adopts the text of IEC 61010-1:2010 (Edition 3, including Corrigendum 1 of 2011) with national deviations for the United States and Canada arising from installation codes and North America-specific safety conditions.
The test program covers the hazards listed in the scope: electric shock (insulation, clearances, electrical strength), heating, mechanical resistance, spread of fire and other hazards applicable to the product concerned.
For an isolator or transducer, check the UL file number, whether the marking is cULus (US and Canada) or UL only, the overvoltage/measurement category and working voltage covered by the certificate, and whether the product also has certification to UL 508 or UL 61010-2-201 (programmable controllers) if it operates in a control circuit.
