Universal Power Cord with Adapters - IVD IEC 61010-2-101

[JackPack]

Hi all,

I would like to ask about the requirements and if there's a smart solution to replace a bunch of country specific cord / plug with a certified universal power cord + country specific adapters.

Context: My company sells In Vitro Diagnostic electronic devices. Customers are complaining that they are not receiving the correct power cords for their country. My company would like to see if we can ship an universal power cord that has been certified in all the shipping countries, along with a bunch of plug adapters and let the customers choose. The adapters are not certified.

Questions:
1. What are the requirements around adapters? From IEC 61010 perspective, I only see that Sweden does not allow this unless it's used by travelers or temporary shows. Are there similar requirements in 60950 and/or 62368-1?

2. How would a company approach the certification of the plug adapters + cord combo? I understand the certification requirement is country specific. Some accept IEC at the connector side, but has its own safety certification requirement on the cable and plug side. Some country accept a la carte but some (like China) requires the whole assembly to be certified.

3. Is this even possible at all? I've never seen a certified plug adapter, let alone a certified adapter + power cord assembly. I would assume many companies would be doing this if it is indeed possible.

Thank you for all your inputs.

Jack

 

[CharlieUK]

In the past I've seen companies ship three different IEC mains leads, providing 1x EU; 1x US; and 1x UK which covers a number of countries/regions
There's more information on adapters in Annex VII of the LVD guide, DocsRoom - European Commission

 

[JackPack]

Thanks for the reply Charlie. That sounds like what we are doing right now but there are a lot more countries involved, hence the number of cords involved and increased chance of the correct cord missing for the customer. We have thought about shipping all cords to customer and let them choose the correct one but that creates a new issue with shipping / weight / packaging haha

 

[DevRegGuy]

Watch out for south america, especially Brazil and Argentina. Their requirements are highly specific and they wouldn't accept the model you have now. They require a specific power cord in the packaging and no other power cords provided, even if they are for other countries..

 

[JackPack]

Watch out for south america, especially Brazil and Argentina. Their requirements are highly specific and they wouldn't accept the model you have now. They require a specific power cord in the packaging and no other power cords provided, even if they are for other countries..

Thank you for the heads up! Would you happen to what standard list that power cord requirement in the 2 countries?

 

[DevRegGuy]

Thank you for the heads up! Would you happen to what standard list that power cord requirement in the 2 countries?

Its been a few years for me dealing with electronics in those countries but I am pretty sure its NBR 14136 and NBR 6147 that Inmetro accepts. I think the safety standard they look for is IEC 60230 or some derivative of that.

 

[CharlieUK]

IEC - World Plugs might help as well