EN 60068-1:1994

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-september-2001
Environmental testing - Part 1: General and guidance
Environmental testing -- Part 1: General and guidance
Umweltprüfungen -- Teil 1: Allgemeines und Leitfaden
Essais d'environnement -- Partie 1: Généralités et guide
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: EN 60068-1:1994
ICS:
19.040 Preskušanje v zvezi z Environmental testing
okoljem
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

IEC 60068-1
Edition 6.0 1988
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
NORME
INTERNATIONALE
Environmental testing –
Part 1: General and guidance
Essais d'environnement –
Partie 1: Généralités et guide

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
COMMISSION
ELECTROTECHNIQUE
PRICE CODE
INTERNATIONALE
U
CODE PRIX
ICS 19.040
68-1 O IEC
-3-
CONTENTS
Page
Clause
1 . Introduction .
2 . Scope .
3 . Object .
4 . Definitions .
5 . Standard atmospheric conditions .
.........................................................
6 . Use of methods of test
7 . Climatic sequence .
8 . Component climatic category .
9 .
Application of tests .
10 .
Significance of the numerical value of a quantity .
..........................................
APPENDIX A -- Component climatic category
...................................................
APPENDIX B -- General guidance .

68-1 O IEC
-5-
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
ENVIRONMENTAL TESTING
Part 1: General and guidance
FOREWORD
I) The formal decisions or agreements of the IEC on technical matters, prepared by Technical Committees on which all
the National Committees having a special interest therein are represented, express. as nearly as possible, an
international consensus of opinion on the subjects dealt with.
2) They have the form of recommendations for international use and they are accepted by the National Committees in
that sense.
3) In order to promote international unification, the IEC expresses the wish that all National Committees should adopt
the text of the IEC recommendation for their national rules in so far as national conditions will permit. Any
divergence between the IEC recommendation and the corresponding national rules should, as far as possible, be
clearly indicated in the latter.
PREFACE
This standard has been prepared by IEC Technical Committee No. 50: Environmental
testing.
This sixth edition replaces the fifth edition of IEC Publication 68-1
(1982).
The text of this standard is based on the following documents:
Two Months' Procedure Report on Voting
Six Months' Rule Reports on Voting
50(C0)206
50(CO) 198 50(C0)202 50(C0)204
50(C0)208
50(C0)205
Full information on the voting for the approval of this standard can be found in the Voting
Reports indicated in the above table.
The following IEC p~rblications are quoted in this standard:
Publications Nos. 50 (301, 302, 303) (1983): International Electrotechnical Vocabulary (IEV), Chapter 301: General
terms on measurements in electricity; Chapter 302: Electrical measuring
instruments; Chapter 303: Electronic measuring instruments. (Advance
edition.)
Environmental testing.
Part 2: Tests.
Test N: Change of temperature.
Test T: Soldering.
Test Ea and guidance: Shock.
Test Z/AD: Composite temperature/humidiry cyclic test.
Mounting of components, equipment and other articles for dynamic
tests including shock (Ea), bump (Eb), vibration (Fc and Fd) and
steady-state acceleration (Ga) and guidance.
Guidance on the application of the tests of IEC Publication 68 to
simulate the effects of storage.

68-1 O IEC
68-3: Part 3: Background informalion.
68-3-1 (1974): Section One - Cold and dry heat tests.
68-3-IA (1978): First supplement.
Part 4: Information for specification writers - Test summaries.
68-4:
160 (1963): Standard atmospheric conditions for test purposes.
271 (1974): List of basic terms, definitions and related mathematics for reliability.
529 (1976): Classification of degrees of protection provided by enclosures.
695: Fire hazard testing.
721: Classification of environmental conditions.
Part 1: Classification of environmental parameters and their severities.
721-1 (1981):
721-2: Part 2: Environmental conditions appearing in nature.
721-3: Part 3: Classification of groups of environmental parameters and their
severities.
Guide 104 (1984): Guide to the drafting of safety standards, and the r6le of Committees
with safety pilot functions and safety group functions.
Other publications quoted:
Standard atmospheres for conditioning and/or testing - Specifications.
IS0 Standard 554 (1976):
IS0 Standard 3205 (1976): Preferred test temperatures.
The contents of the comgendum of October 1988 has been included in this reprint

68-1 O IEC
ENVIRONMENTAL TESTING
Part 1: General and guidance
1. Introduction
1.1 IEC Publication 68 contains fundamental information on environmental testing procedures
and severities of tests. In addition, Part 1 contains information on atmospheric conditions
for measurement and testing.
It is intended to be used in those cases where a relevant specification for a certain
type of product (electrical, electromechanical and electronic equipment and devices, their
sub-assemblies and constituent parts and components), hereinafter referred to as
"specimen", has to be prepared, so as to achieve uniformity and reproducibility in the
environmental testing of this product.
Note. - Although primarily intended for electrotechnical products, many of the environmental testing procedures
in Part 2 of this publication are equally applicable to other industrial products.
The expression "environmental conditioning" or "environmental testing" covers the
natural and artificial environments to which specimens may be exposed so that an
assessment can be made of their performance under conditions of use, transport and
storage to which they may be subjected in practice.
The requirements for the performance of specimens subjected to environmental
conditioning are not covered by this publication. The relevant specification for the
specimen under test defines the allowed performance limits during and after
environmental testing.
When drafting a relevant specification or purchasing contract, only those tests should
be specified that are necessary for the relevant specimen taking into account the
technical and economic aspects.
I EC Publication 68 consists of:
a) this first Part (Publication 68-1) which deals with generalities;
Note. - Attention is drawn to Publication 68-2-48.
b) the second Part (Publication 68-2) published as separate booklets each dealing with a
family of tests or a particular test or guidance for their application;
Note. - Attention is drawn to Publication 68-2-47.
c) the third Part (Publication 68-3) published as separate booklets each dealing with
background information on a family of tests;
d) the fourth Part (Publication 68-4), giving information for specification writers,
published in two sections of which the second, in loose-leaf form, contains summaries
of all the current tests in Publication 68-2:
Note. - Fire hazard tests are separately published in IEC Publication 695.

68-1 @ IEC - 11 -
1.2 The following historical survey gives the significant features of this and of the earlier
editions:
First edirion (1 954)
Contained not only the general part but also many of the individual tests which now
form part of the Publication 68-2 series.
Second edition (1 960)
Format changed to Publication 68-1: General. Tests published separately as Publication
68-2 series. Degrees of severity were included for all tests.
Third edition (1968)
Degrees of severity dropped, many more definitions included which were amended and
added to in Amendment No. l, December 1972, and component climatic category
introduced. The recovery clause (Sub-clause 5.4) was intended to apply to normal
applications so that ALL SPECIMENS would be submitted to rigidly controlled
conditions, unless otherwise specified. Supplement A was issued in December 1974 to
add further definitions of combined and composite tests and sequences of tests.
Fourth edition (1978)
Amendment No. l and Supplement A to the third edition were incorporated in this ,
edition and an amendment to standard recovery conditions, also including further
recovery conditions with wider tolerances on temperature and humidity, was added to the
original Sub-clause 5.4 of the third edition.
F$th edition (1982)
This edition comprised the text of the fourth edition with the addition of Clause 10:
Significance of the numerical value of a quantity, and of an appendix giving general
guidance on environmental testing.
Sixth edition (1 988)
This edition contains a largely editorial revision of the fifth edition, the technical
content of IEC Publication 160, which will be withdrawn, and technical amendments of
Clause 7 and Appendix A.
1.3 The families of tests comprising Part 2 of this publication are designated by the following
upper case letters:
A: Cold.
B: Dry heat.
C: Damp heat (steady state).
D: Damp heat (cyclic).
E: Impact (for example shock and bump).
F: Vibration.
G: Acceleration (steady state).

68-1 O IEC - 13 -
H: Awaiting allocation (was originally allotted to "storage" tests for which see note in
Item a) of Sub-clause 1.1.
J: Mould growth.
K: Corrosive atmospheres (for example salt mist).
L: Dust and sand.
M: Air pressure (high or low).
N: Change of temperature.
P: Awaiting allocation (was originally allotted to "flammability" tests now being dealt
with as "fire hazard" tests in I EC Publication 695).
Q: Sealing (including panel sealing, container sealing and protection against ingress
and leakage of fluid).
R: Water (for example rain, dripping water).
S: Radiation (for example solar, but excluding electromagnetic).
T: Soldering (including resistance to heat from soldering).
U: Robustness of terminations (of components).
V: Awaiting allocation (was originally allocated to "acoustic noise" but "vibration,
acoustically induced" will now be Test Fg, one of the "vibration" family of tests).
W: Awaiting allocation.
Y: Awaiting allocation.
The letter X is used as a prefix together with a second upper case letter providing for
extension of the list of families of tests, e.g. Test XA: Immersion in cleaning solvents.
The letter Z is used to denote combined tests and composite tests as follows: Z is
followed by a solidus and a group of upper case letters relating to the combined or
composite stresses, for example Test Z/AM: Combined cold and low air pressure tests.
If appropriate, any test may be designated as "primarily intended for components" or
"primarily intended for equipment".
1.4 To provide for future expansion within a family of tests and to maintain consistency of
presentation, each family of tests may be subdivided. The subdivisions are identified by
the addition of a (lower case) second letter, for example:
U: Robustness of terminations and integral mounting devices
Test Ua: Subdivided as Test Ua,: Tensile and Test Ua,: Thrust
Test Ub: Bending
Test Uc: Torsion
Test Ud: Torque
This subdivision will be made even though only one test is published and no further
tests are immediately contemplated in the relevant family.
In order to avoid confusion with numbers, the letters i, I, o and 0 will not be used.
1.5 See editorial footnote.
Editorial note. - "Safety pilot functions" (see IEC Guide 104) have been allocated to Sub-Committee 50A for
"mechanical robustness" testing and to Sub-Committee 50B for "corrosion" testing.

68-1 O IEC
2. Scope
Publication 68 includes a series of methods of environmental test and their appropriate
severities, and prescribes various atmospheric conditions for measurements and tests
designed to assess the ability of specimens to perform under expected conditions of
transportation, storage and all aspects of operational use.
Although primarily intended for electrotechnical products this publication is not
restricted to them and may be used in other fields where desired.
Other methods of environmental test, specific to the individual types of specimen, may
be included in the relevant specifications.
3. Object
The object of Publication 68 is to provide a series of uniform and reproducible
methods of environmental (primarily climatic and mechanical robustness) test, with
standard atmospheric conditions for measurements and tests, for those preparing
specifications and for those engaged in the testing of those products.
These methods of test have been based upon available international engineering
experience and judgement and are primarily designed to provide information on the
following properties of specimens:
a) The ability to operate within specified limits of temperature, pressure, humidity,
mechanical stress or other environmental conditions and certain combinations of these
conditions.
Nore. - IEC Publication 721-1 defines "environmental conditions", and environmental conditions occurring in
nature are classified in IEC Publications 721-2 and 721-3.
b) The ability to withstand conditions of transportation and storage.
The tests in this publication permit the comparison of the performance of sample
products. To assess the quality or useful life, as defined in S
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