EN IEC 61340-4-11:2025

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-julij-2025
Elektrostatika - 4-11. del: Standardne preskusne metode za posebno uporabo -
Preskušanje elektrostatičnih lastnosti kompozitnih IBC (IEC 61340-4-11:2025)
Electrostatics - Part 4-11: Standard test methods for specific applications - Testing of
electrostatic properties of composite IBC (IEC 61340-4-11:2025)
Elektrostatik - Teil 4-11: Standard-Prüfverfahren für spezielle Anwendungen - Prüfung
der elektrostatischen Eigenschaften von Kombinations-IBC (RIBC) - Prüfungen im
Rahmen der Qualitätssicherung und Sicherheit (IEC 61340-4-11:2025)
électrostatique - Partie 4-11: Méthodes d'essai normalisées pour des applications
spécifiques - Essais des propriétés électrostatiques des grv composites (IEC 61340-4-
11:2025)
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: EN IEC 61340-4-11:2025
ICS:
17.220.99 Drugi standardi v zvezi z Other standards related to
elektriko in magnetizmom electricity and magnetism
55.080 Vreče. Vrečke Sacks. Bags
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

EUROPEAN STANDARD EN IEC 61340-4-11

NORME EUROPÉENNE
EUROPÄISCHE NORM May 2025
ICS 17.220.99; 29.020; 55.080
English Version
Electrostatics - Part 4-11: Standard test methods for specific
applications - Testing of electrostatic properties of composite
IBC
(IEC 61340-4-11:2025)
Électrostatique - Partie 4-11 : Méthodes d'essai Elektrostatik - Teil 4-11: Standard-Prüfverfahren für
normalisées pour des applications spécifiques - Essais des spezielle Anwendungen - Prüfung der elektrostatischen
propriétés électrostatiques des GRV composites Eigenschaften von Kombinations-IBC (RIBC)
(IEC 61340-4-11:2025) (IEC 61340-4-11:2025)
This European Standard was approved by CENELEC on 2025-04-24. CENELEC members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC
Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration.
Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC
Management Centre or to any CENELEC member.
This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation
under the responsibility of a CENELEC member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the
same status as the official versions.
CENELEC members are the national electrotechnical committees of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic,
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the
Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,
Türkiye and the United Kingdom.

European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization
Comité Européen de Normalisation Electrotechnique
Europäisches Komitee für Elektrotechnische Normung
CEN-CENELEC Management Centre: Rue de la Science 23, B-1040 Brussels
© 2025 CENELEC All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved worldwide for CENELEC Members.
Ref. No. EN IEC 61340-4-11:2025 E

European foreword
The text of document 101/723/FDIS, future edition 1 of IEC 61340-4-11, prepared by TC 101
"Electrostatics" was submitted to the IEC-CENELEC parallel vote and approved by CENELEC as
The following dates are fixed:
• latest date by which the document has to be implemented at national (dop) 2026-05-31
level by publication of an identical national standard or by endorsement
• latest date by which the national standards conflicting with the (dow) 2028-05-31
document have to be withdrawn
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. CENELEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national committee. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CENELEC website.
Endorsement notice
The text of the International Standard IEC 61340-4-11:2025 was approved by CENELEC as a
European Standard without any modification.
In the official version, for Bibliography, the following note has to be added for the standard indicated:
IEC 60079-32-2:2015 NOTE Approved as EN 60079-32-2:2015 (not modified)
Annex ZA
(normative)
Normative references to international publications
with their corresponding European publications
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content
constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For
undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments)
applies.
NOTE 1  Where an International Publication has been modified by common modifications, indicated by (mod),
the relevant EN/HD applies.
NOTE 2  Up-to-date information on the latest versions of the European Standards listed in this annex is available
here: www.cencenelec.eu.
Publication Year Title EN/HD Year
IEC/TS 60079-32-1 2013 Explosive atmospheres - Part 32-1: CLC/TR 60079-32-1 2018
Electrostatic hazards, guidance
+ A1 2017
IEC 61010-1 - Safety requirements for electrical EN 61010-1 -
equipment for measurement, control,
and laboratory use - Part 1: General
requirements
IEC 61010-2-030 - Safety requirements for electrical EN IEC 61010-2-030 -
equipment for measurement, control,
and laboratory use - Part 2-030:
Particular requirements for equipment
having testing or measuring circuits
ISO 48-4 - Rubber, vulcanized or thermoplastic - - -
Determination of hardness – Part 4:
Indentation hardness by durometer
method (Shore hardness)
IEC 61340-4-11 ®
Edition 1.0 2025-03
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
NORME
INTERNATIONALE
Electrostatics –
Part 4-11: Standard test methods for specific applications – Testing of

electrostatic properties of composite IBC

Électrostatique –
Partie 4-11 : Méthodes d'essai normalisées pour des applications spécifiques –

Essais des propriétés électrostatiques des GRV composites

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
COMMISSION
ELECTROTECHNIQUE
INTERNATIONALE
ICS 17.220.99, 29.020, 55.080 ISBN 978-2-8327-0245-1

– 2 – IEC 61340-4-11:2025 © IEC 2025
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 3
INTRODUCTION . 5
1 Scope . 6
2 Normative references . 6
3 Terms and definitions . 7
4 Electrical resistance measurements . 7
4.1 Atmosphere for conditioning and testing . 7
4.2 Apparatus . 7
4.2.1 Instrumentation for measuring surface resistance and resistance to earth . 7
4.2.2 Instrumentation for measuring earth continuity resistance . 8
4.2.3 Electrode assembly for measuring surface resistance and resistance to
earth of inner receptacles . 9
4.2.4 Test leads . 11
4.3 Test procedures . 12
4.3.1 Surface resistance . 12
4.3.2 Resistance to earth of inner receptacle . 13
4.3.3 Resistance to earth of liquid in the inner receptacle . 14
4.3.4 Earth continuity resistance . 15
4.4 Test report . 16
5 Tests . 17
5.1 Tests on new composite IBC . 17
5.1.1 General . 17
5.1.2 Tests of new conductively encased composite IBC with insulating inner
receptacle . 17
5.1.3 Tests on new coated and coextruded composite IBC . 17
5.2 Tests on composite IBC after the first filling . 18
5.2.1 Requirements for periodic examination and testing . 18
5.2.2 Tests of conductively encased composite IBC with insulating inner
receptacle . 18
5.2.3 Tests on coated and coextruded composite IBC . 18
5.2.4 Tests on reconditioned composite IBC . 18
6 Test report and documentation . 20
Annex A (informative) Examples of a test report sheet and safety labels . 21
Bibliography . 24

Figure 1 – Example of an electrode assembly for laboratory evaluations and
acceptance testing . 10
Figure 2 – Example of a contact/support disc with an articulated joint . 10
Figure 3 – Operation of the push-rod handle: relaxed position (left) and measuring
position (right) . 11
Figure 4 – Test procedures for measuring surface resistance . 13
Figure 5 – Test procedure for measuring resistance to earth of an inner receptacle . 14
Figure 6 – Test procedure for measuring resistance to earth of liquid in an inner
receptacle . 15
Figure 7 – Test procedure for measuring earth continuity resistance . 16
Figure A.1 – Example of a test report sheet . 23
Figure A.2 – Safety labels . 23

IEC 61340-4-11:2025 © IEC 2025 – 3 –
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
ELECTROSTATICS –
Part 4-11: Standard test methods for specific applications –
Testing of electrostatic properties of composite IBC

FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote international
co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To this end and
in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications, Technical Reports,
Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as “IEC Publication(s)”). Their
preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested in the subject dealt with
may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-governmental organizations liaising
with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely with the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined by agreement between the two organizations.
2) The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international
consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all
interested IEC National Committees.
3) IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National
Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC
Publications is accurate, IEC cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any
misinterpretation by any end user.
4) In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC Publications
transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence between
any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in the latter.
5) IEC itself does not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity
assessment services and, in some areas, access to IEC marks of conformity. IEC is not responsible for any
services carried out by independent certification bodies.
6) All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
7) No liability shall attach to IEC or its directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts and
members of its technical committees and IEC National Committees for any personal injury, property damage or
other damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, or for costs (including legal fees) and
expenses arising out of the publication, use of, or reliance upon, this IEC Publication or any other IEC
Publications.
8) Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is
indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
9) IEC draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a)
patent(s). IEC takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights in
respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, IEC had not received notice of (a) patent(s), which
may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent
the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at https://patents.iec.ch. IEC
shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
IEC 61340-4-11 has been prepared by IEC technical committee 101: Electrostatics. It is an
International Standard.
The text of this International Standard is based on the following documents:
Draft Report on voting
101/723/FDIS 101/727/RVD
Full information on the voting for its approval can be found in the report on voting indicated in
the above table.
The language used for the development of this International Standard is English.

– 4 – IEC 61340-4-11:2025 © IEC 2025
This document was drafted in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, and developed in
accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1 and ISO/IEC Directives, IEC Supplement, available
at www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs. The main document types developed by IEC are
described in greater detail at www.iec.ch/publications.
A list of all the parts in the IEC 61340 series, published under the general title Electrostatics,
can be found on the IEC website.
The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the
stability date indicated on the IEC website under webstore.iec.ch in the data related to the
specific document. At this date, the document will be
• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn, or
• revised.
IEC 61340-4-11:2025 © IEC 2025 – 5 –
INTRODUCTION
Rigid Intermediate Bulk Containers (RIBC), including composite IBC, are widely used for
storage, transportation and handling of liquids.
Only composite IBCs are considered in this part of IEC 61340. The detailed definition of
composite IBC is specified in 6.5.1.3.4 of [1] . Composite IBC with plastic inner receptacles
comprises a rigid outer casing surrounding a plastic inner receptacle, together with appropriate
service and structural equipment. The assembled outer casing and inner receptacle form an
integral unit for filling, storage, transportation and emptying.
The inner receptacle is not intended to perform a containment function without its outer casing.
A "rigid" inner receptacle is a receptacle which retains its general shape when empty without
closures in place and without benefit of the outer casing. Any inner receptacle that is not "rigid"
is considered to be "flexible" (see 6.5.5.4.2 of [1]).
Usually such a receptacle is made of HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) which shows a good
3 3
chemical resistance to various liquids. The volume is usually between 0,5 m and 1,3 m and
is typically 1 m .
HDPE is an electrically insulating material which can become electrostatically charged. Often
the liquid inserted into a composite IBC is also electrically insulating. High electrostatic charges
can occur during filling and emptying processes and remain for a long period of time. An ignition
hazard can occur which is why electrostatically unprotected composite IBC are not used in
hazardous areas. Electrostatic protected IBCs are designed to be safe for use in hazardous
areas.
___________
Numbers in square brackets refer to the Bibliography.

– 6 – IEC 61340-4-11:2025 © IEC 2025
ELECTROSTATICS –
Part 4-11: Standard test methods for specific applications –
Testing of electrostatic properties of composite IBC

1 Scope
This part of IEC 61340 specifies the electrostatic testing, design and safe use requirements for
composite intermediate bulk containers (IBC) intended for use in hazardous areas.
Composite IBC are often filled with flammable liquids which can create an explosive atmosphere
in the inner receptacle. The design requirements for composite IBC intended for such use are
defined in 7.3.4.5 of IEC TS 60079-32-1:2013.
The test procedures described in this document can be used by manufacturers, suppliers and
product users for product qualification and compliance verification of new and reconditioned
composite IBC. Additionally, the requirements of this document can be used for testing the
electrostatic properties of composite IBC, independent of any inspection periods.
Precautions regarding the use of composite IBC (e.g., stirring, cleaning etc.) are defined in
7.3.4.5 of IEC TS 60079-32-1:2013.
Compliance with the requirements of this document does not mitigate the need for full risk
assessment.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content
constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies.
For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any
amendments) applies.
IEC TS 60079-32-1:2013 , Explosive atmospheres – Part 32-1: Electrostatic hazards, guidance
IEC TS 60079-32-1:2013/AMD1:2017
IEC 61010-1, Safety requirements for electrical equipment for measurement, control, and
laboratory use – Part 1: General requirements
IEC 61010-2-030, Safety requirements for electrical equipment for measurement, control, and
laboratory use – Part 2-030: Particular requirements for equipment having testing or measuring
circuits
ISO 48-4, Rubber, vulcanized or thermoplastic – Determination of hardness – Part 4:
Indentation hardness by durometer method (Shore hardness)
___________
There exists a consolidated version 1.1:2017 that includes IEC TS 60079-32-1:2013 and its Amendment 1:2017.

IEC 61340-4-11:2025 © IEC 2025 – 7 –
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in IEC TS 60079-32-1 and
the following apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following
addresses:
• IEC Electropedia: available at https://www.electropedia.org/
• ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://www.iso.org/obp
3.1
reconditioning
refurbishment of a composite IBC using various processes to make it ready for re-use without
any additional restrictions regarding its intended use
Note 1 to entry: Reconditioning refers to the routine maintenance of rigid IBCs (e.g. cleaning of IBC),
remanufactured IBC or repaired IBC as defined in 1.2.1 of [2].
3.2
rebottling
replacement of the inner receptacle of a used composite IBC by a new one
Note 1 to entry: Inner receptacle is also known as bottle.
Note 2 to entry: Rebottling can be done under the regime of repaired IBC as defined in 1.2.1 of Reference [2].
4 Electrical resistance measurements
4.1 Atmosphere for conditioning and testing
Unless otherwise agreed, the atmosphere for conditioning and testing for laboratory evaluation
and acceptance testing shall be (23 ± 2) °C and (25 ± 5) % relative humidity, and the
conditioning time prior to testing shall be at least 24 h.
Compliance verification testing is commonly performed under prevailing operational conditions
of temperature and relative humidity. If compliance verification testing is done outside of normal
operations, in a separate laboratory for example, temperature and relative humidity shall either
be as specified above, or as typically found in normal operations. The temperature and relative
humidity at the time of testing, and during any conditioning period, shall be recorded with the
test results.
4.2 Apparatus
4.2.1 Instrumentation for measuring surface resistance and resistance to earth
4.2.1.1 General
Resistance measuring apparatus may consist of either a DC power supply and ammeter, or an
integrated instrument (ohmmeter).
With some instrumentation, either one of the measuring terminals can be connected to earth.
However, in some cases, it is important to only connect the correctly designated terminal to
earth. This is an important consideration if the earth bonding point is connected to earth when
measurements are made.
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WARNING – The procedures and equipment described in this document can expose personnel
to hazardous electrical conditions. Users of this document are responsible for selecting
equipment that complies with applicable laws and regulatory codes. Test procedures shall not
be carried out in the presence of powders, liquids or gases that can form explosive
atmospheres. Users of this document are encouraged to carry out proper risk assessments
before undertaking any of the test procedures. Safety requirements for electrical equipment for
measurements are given in IEC 61010-1 and IEC 61010-2-030.
4.2.1.2 Instrumentation for laboratory evaluation
The open circuit voltage shall be (10,0 ± 0,5) V for measurements less than 1 × 10 Ω.
The output volta
...