77A/495/CD

COMMITTEE DRAFT (CD)

IEC/TC or SC : Project number

77A IEC 61000-3-2 A3 f4 Ed.2
Title of TC/SC: Date of circulation Closing date for comments
Low frequency phenomena 2005-05-27 2005-09-02
Also of interest to the following committees Supersedes document
77A/494/MCR
Functions concerned:
Safety EMC Environment Quality assurance
Secretary: THIS DOCUMENT IS STILL UNDER STUDY AND SUBJECT TO
Natalie BAUMIER-DUPHIL CHANGE . IT SHOULD NOT BE USED FOR REFERENCE PURPOSES .
RECIPIENTS OF THIS DOCUMENT ARE INVITED TO SUBMIT , W ITH
THEIR COMMENTS , NOTIFICATION OF ANY RELEVANT PATENT
RIGHTS OF W HICH THEY ARE AW ARE AND TO PROVIDE
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION .

Title:
Amendment to IEC 61000-3-2: Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) – Part 3-2: Limits – Limits for
harmonic current emissions (equipment input current ≤ 16 A per phase)

(Titre) :
Amendement à la CEI 61000-3-2 : Compatibilité électromagnétique (CEM) – Partie 3-2 : Limites – Limites pour les
émissions de courant harmonique (courant appelé par les appareils ≤ 16 A par phase)

Introductory note

Note of the Secretary :

This proposal is based on the discussion and decisions in SC77A/WG1 May 2005 meeting (Roma). The
secretariat of SC77A, having noted the decision to issue a CD to amend clause C.10 and observed that
the consensus on specific test conditions for portable IT equipment (notebooks) is not as strong as the
consensus on the general test conditions, the amendment of clause C.10 has been split in two separate
fragments for the consultation of the SC77A P-Members.
The present fragment is related to general test conditions for information technology equipment (C.10.1).
The introduction is only for information and will not be part of the final publication.

FORM CD (IEC)
2002-08-08
FORM CD (IEC) 2002-08-08
61000-3-2 Amendment © IEC:2005 –2– 77A/495/CD

Introduction

The proposal basically deals with the following problem: to more accurately specify the general test
conditions applicable to IT equipment.

The proposed amendment modifies clause C.10, which defines the test conditions for IT equipment. It
does not change the definition of equipment classes or the criteria determining to which class given
equipment should belong.

Purpose and justification

• The 'rated current' values may be difficult to obtain and even more problematic to maintain during
a sufficiently long period of time;
• The 'rated power' and 'rated current' are derived from safety considerations are not sufficiently
well defined in the present standard and do not necessarily represent the actual consumption
during normal operation of the equipment; moreover, the difference may be large;
• In almost all cases, the power supply is over-dimensioned (values as high as 400 W for an EUT
actually drawing little more than 100 W are known) for technical reasons other than for the power
load requirements of the equipment under test, often by a large factor and the rated power and
current marked on the equipment cannot be achieved, given the number of electronic card slots
and the maximum power or current per slot imposed by the applicable bus standard (e.g. PCI bus
standard for Personal Computers);
NOTE: The marking requirements specified in IEC 60950-1 refer to the characteristics of the necessary mains supply, not the actual
current and power of the EUT.

• Application of current test conditions based on rated power and rated current is difficult, if not
impossible, particularly for general purpose equipment which allows multiple hardware and
software configurations.
61000-3-2 Amendment © IEC:2005 –3– 77A/495/CD

FOREWORD

This amendment has been prepared by subcommittee 77A: Low-frequency phenomena, of

IEC technical committee 77: Electromagnetic compatibility.

The text of this amendment is based on the following documents:

FDIS Report on voting

77A/XX/FDIS 77A/XX/RVD

Full information on the voting for the approval of this amendment can be found in the report
on voting indicated in the above table. The committee has decided that the contents of the
base publication and its amendments will remain unchanged until 20XX. At this date, the
publication will be

• reconfirmed;
• withdrawn;
• replaced by a revised edition, or
• amended.

_____________
61000-3-2 Amendment © IEC:2005 –4– 77A/495/CD

C.10 Test conditions for information technology equipment (ITE)

Replace current content which states :

“ITE is tested with the equipment configured to its rated current. In this case, the equipment, if
necessary, may be configured with its power supplies loaded with additional load (resistive)
boards to simulate rated current conditions.”,

with the following :

C.10.1 General conditions

ITE which is marketed without 'factory-fitted options' and without expansion slot capabilities is
tested as supplied. Products which are marketed with 'factory-fitted options' or have
expansion slots, are tested with additional loads in each expansion slot that result in the
maximum power consumption attainable using the “factory-fitted options” intended for use
with the product except for personal computers (PC’s) which are to be tested as specified
below.
For PC’s with up to 3 expansion slots, load cards configured for the maximum permitted
power for each expansion slot shall be added to each respective expansion slot. For PC’s
with more than 3 expansion slots, additional load cards shall be installed at the rate of at least
one load card for each group of up to 3 additional slots (i.e. for 4 ,5, or 6 slots a total of at
least 4 load cards shall be added. For 7, 8, or 9 slots a total of at least 5 load cards shall be
added, etc..)
Modular equipment, such as hard drive arrays and network servers are tested in their
maximum configuration.
NOTE 1- The above does not mean that multiple options of the same type, such as more than one hard drive,
should be fitted, unless that is representative of the user configuration, or the product is of a type (such as RAID)
for which such a configuration is not abnormal.
NOTE 2 – Common load cards for expansion slots such as PCI or PCI-2 are configured for 30 Watts but may be
adjusted as industry standards change.

Emission tests shall be conducted with the user’s operation controls or automatic programs
set to the mode expected to produce the maximum total harmonic current(THC) under normal
operating conditions.
Power saving modes which may cause large power level fluctuations shall be disabled, so
that all, or part, of the equipment does not automatically switch off during the measurements.