Free Guide to IEC60601 Electrical Safety Requirements
Biomedical test equipment and instrumentation specialist Rigel Medical has published a FREE guide to the electrical safety requirements of IEC 60601 - the international electrotechnical safety standard for medical equipment. Medical Tester Hospital equipment
Copies of the Practical Guide to IEC 60601-1 are available FREE from Rigel Medical call on Tel. +44 (0) 191 587 8744 to request a guide.
The new booklet provides an introduction to the implications and applications of the section IEC 60601-1, which deals specifically with the electrical safety of medical equipment used in the monitoring and treatment of patients.
For example, during invasive treatments using patient connected equipment, the human body's natural protection organ, the skin, no longer provides the basic insulation against electrical currents and it is during these treatments that electrical currents as low as 50µA can result in fatality. To govern the safe design and manufacture of medical equipment, the International Electrotechnical Committee (IEC) has produced standard IEC 60601. Although this is a manufacturing safety standard, in the absence of formal guidelines for in-service electrical safety testing, its test specifications and limits are also used to ensure that equipment remains safe once it has been supplied and used in medical premises.
The new IEC 60601-1 booklet available from Rigel Medical explains the requirements of the standard in easy to follow terms and provides all the relevant information in relation to commonly used definitions, symbols, different leakage measurements, schematics, pass/fail limits and single fault conditions.
This handy 24 page A5 booklet provides a useful guide for both new and experienced users of electromedical test equipment and provides an easy reference guide for electrical safety testing issues. IEC 60601 EN60601 Biomedical engineering
