THE NEW STANDARD IEC 61482 AND EXPERIENCES WITH THE BOX METHOD FOR TESTING OF CLOTHING FOR PROTECTION AGAINST THE THERMAL HAZARDS OF AN ELECTRIC ARC

There is a general hazard and potential risk of human injury due to electric arcs particularly in case of fault arcs which may internally occur with short-circuits in electric installations. These arcs cannot be avoided totally. In particular those people are concerned, working at, in or in the vicinity of these installations for professional reasons, particularly in case of live working. Their working clothing may essentially contribute to protect them particularly against the thermal arc consequences or be actually a base for the according protection. It is of greatest importance for the personnel mounting, repairing, maintaining or operating electrical equipment and installations to be safely protected in each situation actually. There may not result any unacceptable health risk, the suitability of clothing has to be analysed and proved. The properties and requirements to be fulfilled by protective clothing as well as the way and procedures for proving and testing have to be defined. Particularly, reliable tests are necessary to confirm the working clothing to be arc resistant and guaranteeing the protective level required. Test method, procedure, set-up and parameters must meet the according practical needs. The test conditions have to be selected and terminated in accordance with the relevant power network and installation ones, and the practical exposure scenarios as well. Furthermore, quantitative assessment and evaluation is necessary in testing. The calorimetric arc effects are to be measured, a calorimetric analysis of the tests has to be carried out.