In today’s electrical market the need for documentation is greater than ever.
Product norms
Standardisation of product norms has
been one of the EU’s most important goals, and not only for lighting.
The IEC (International Electro-technical Commission), via its national
sub-committees, which instigates the various norms. These are then sent
for voting before finally being approved by CENELEC (European Committee
for Electro-technical Standardisation). Each is thus defined as a
European Norm (EN) before it becomes a national standard (BS-EN). For
light fittings there are a number of standards to be complied with. The
general product norm is called EN 60598-1 and the various versions then
have the designation EN 60598-2-xx.
Product norms are largely
concerned with user safety and are as such no criteria of quality in
themselves. Individual product norms must however include criteria from
installation and maintenance standards that concern user safety. Some
examples of this are the product standard for emergency lighting (EN
60598-2-22) and the product standard for road lighting (EN 60598-2-3).
Product standards also refer to other standards, which might cover vital components used in the product for example.