# IEC codes



## GSH (Sep 24, 2009)

Hello all,
This is my first post and I am looking forward to giving and receiving help. My company is interested in building a plant in Europe and we build all of our own equipment. We do not sell any equipment and do not intend to. My question is: does anyone know the specific IEC Code(s) that would need to be followed to construct an industrial control cabinet with VFD's, PLC, Solid State Contactors, and relays. etc..? We build cabinets that conform to local codes and NEC, but I have tried to research which IEC codes to use for Europe and found that there seem to be quite a few that would be appropriate. I just didn't want to buy all the codes if they do not apply. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks


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## EJPHI (May 7, 2008)

GSH,

I think you are in the same situation as someone building their own process equipment cabinet for use in the US except of course for the destination location.

Since the equipment will not be for resale, you only have to follow standard wiring practices for the destination country. The focus should be on incomming power including over current protection, grounding, and EMI filtering. 

IEC rules will apply to things like power line harmonics (power factor), conducted/radiated susceptability and emissions, ground leakage currents, and ESD. But all of this will be addressed in the design of the components you put in your cabinet. If you stick with pieces that are already CE marked you should have no trouble.

Some countries are more agressive about enforcing these rules in your case. But again if the pieces are all CE marked and correctly connected, then the system as a whole should be OK because you are not reselling.

In the past, I have always followed the recommendations of the component supplier in my system designs. They will provide the configuration used to gain the CE mark and this is really the best you can do. 

There is one catch: If what you are doing has any high power rf or light source, you will have some special considerations. You have to adhere to the locally mandated ISM (industrial scientific measurement) frequency range and conducted/radiated emissions limits for the rf and wavelength/flux limits for light. I don't remember the specific IEC rule, but this should be easy to find or disregard if you don't have high power rf or light sources. 

Cheers,
EJPHI


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