AS 60068.

1—2003
IEC 60068-1:1991
IEC 60068-1:1991/Amd 1:1992
AS 60068.1

Australian Standard™
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Environmental testing

Part 1: General and guidance

 This Australian Standard was prepared by Committee EL-026, Protective
Enclosures and Environmental Testing for Electrical/Electronic Equipment. It was
approved on behalf of the Council of Standards Australia on 14 February 2003 and
published on 20 March 2003.

The following are represented on Committee EL-026:

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Australian Electrical and Electronic Manufacturer’s Association
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Electrical Compliance Testing Association

Electrical Regulatory Authorities Council
Electricity Supply Association of Australia
Testing Interests (Australia)

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This Standard was issued in draft form for comment as DR 02476.

 AS 60068.1—2003

Australian Standard™
This is a free 9 page sample. Access the full version at http://infostore.saiglobal.com.

Environmental testing

Part 1: General and guidance

Originated as part of AS C333—1963.

Previous edition AS 1099.1—1989.
AS 1099.1—1989 revised and redesignated as AS 60068.1—2003.

COPYRIGHT
© Standards Australia International
All rights are reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without the written permission of the
publisher.
Published by Standards Australia International Ltd
GPO Box 5420, Sydney, NSW 2001, Australia
ISBN 0 7337 5088 5
 ii

PREFACE

This Standard was prepared by the Standards Australia Committee EL-026, Protective
Enclosures and Environmental Testing for Electrical/Electronic Equipment to supersede
AS 1099.1—1989, Basic environmental testing procedures for electrotechnology
Part 1: General.
The objective of this Standard is to provide the electrotechnology industry with a complete set
of environmental test procedures published as a series under AS 60068 Environmental testing.
This Standard is Part 1 of that series.
This Standard is identical with, and has been reproduced, from IEC 60068-1:1991,
Environmental testing—Part 1: General and guidance incorporating Amendment 1:1992.
As this Standard is reproduced from an International Standard, the following applies:
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(a) Its number does not appear on each page of text and its identity is shown only on the
cover and title page.
(b) In the source text ‘this international standard’ should read ‘this Australian Standard’.
(c) A full point should be substituted for a comma when referring to a decimal marker.
(d) Any French text on figures should be ignored.
In this Standard, the following print types are used:
– requirements proper: in arial type ;
– test specifications: in italic type;
– explanatory matter: in smaller arial type.

Any international Standard referenced should be replaced by an equivalent Australian Standard

when one is available. The availability of equivalent Australian Standards can be determined
either from the Standards Australia catalogue or from the Standards Australia website
(www.standards.com.au).
 iii

CONTENTS

Page

1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1
2 Scope .............................................................................................................................. 3
3 Object .............................................................................................................................. 3
4 Definitions ....................................................................................................................... 4
4.1 Test ........................................................................................................................ 4
4.1.1 Pre-conditioning.......................................................................................... 4
4.1.2 Conditioning ............................................................................................... 5
4.1.3 Recovery .................................................................................................... 5
4.2 Specimen ............................................................................................................... 5
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4.3 Heat-dissipating specimen ...................................................................................... 5

4.4 Free air conditions .................................................................................................. 5
4.5 Relevant specification............................................................................................. 5
4.6 Ambient temperature .............................................................................................. 5
4.6.1 Non-heat-dissipating specimens ................................................................. 5
4.6.2 Heat-dissipating specimens ........................................................................ 5
4.7 Surface temperature (case temperature)................................................................. 5
4.8 Thermal stability ..................................................................................................... 6
4.9 Chamber................................................................................................................. 6
4.9.1 Working space ............................................................................................ 6
4.10 Combined test ........................................................................................................ 6
4.11 Composite test ....................................................................................................... 6
4.12 Sequence of tests ................................................................................................... 6
4.13 Reference atmosphere ........................................................................................... 7
4.14 Referee measurements........................................................................................... 7
4.15 Conditioning (of a specimen for measurement) ....................................................... 7
5 Standard atmospheric conditions ..................................................................................... 7
5.1 Standard reference atmosphere.............................................................................. 7
5.2 Standard atmospheres for referee measurements and tests.................................... 7
5.3 Standard atmospheric conditions for measurement and tests.................................. 8
5.4 Recovery conditions ............................................................................................... 8
5.5 Standard conditions for assisted drying .................................................................. 9
6 Use of methods of test ..................................................................................................... 9
7 Climatic sequence ........................................................................................................... 9
8 Component climatic category ..........................................................................................10
9 Application of tests .........................................................................................................10
10 Significance of the numerical value of a quantity.............................................................10
10.1 Quantity expressed as nominal value with tolerance ..............................................10
10.2 Quantity expressed as a range of values ...............................................................11
Annex A Component climatic category .................................................................................12
Annex B General guidance...................................................................................................13
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iv

NOTES
 1

STANDARDS AUSTRALIA

Australian Standard

Environmental testing
Part 1: General and guidance

1 Introduction

1.1 IEC 60068 contains fundamental information on environmental testing procedures and
severities of tests. In addition, Part 1 contains information on atmospheric conditions for
measurement and testing.
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It is intended to be used in those cases where a relevant specification for a certain type of
product (electrical, electromechanical and electronic equipment and devices, their
subassemblies and constituent parts and components), hereinafter referred to as “specimen”,
has to be prepared, so as to achieve uniformity and reproducibility in the environmental
testing of this product.
NOTE – Although primarily intended for electrotechnical products, many of the environmental testing procedures in
Part 2 of this publication are equally applicable to other industrial products.

The expression “environmental conditioning” or “environmental testing” covers the natural and
artificial environments to which specimens may be exposed so that an assessment can be
made of their performance under conditions of use, transport and storage to which they may
be subjected in practice.

The requirements for the performance of specimens subjected to environmental conditioning

are not covered by this publication. The relevant specification for the specimen under test
defines the allowed performance limits during and after environmental testing.

When drafting a relevant specification or purchasing contract, only those tests should be
specified that are necessary for the relevant specimen taking into account the technical and
economic aspects.

IEC 60068 consists of:

a) this first Part (IEC 60068-1) which deals with generalities;

NOTE – Attention is drawn to IEC 60068-2-48.
b) the second Part (IEC 60068-2) published as separate booklets each dealing with a
family of tests or a particular test or guidance for their application;
NOTE – Attention is drawn to IEC 60068-2-47.
c) the third Part (IEC 60068-3) published as separate booklets each dealing with
background information on a family of tests;
d) the fourth Part (IEC 60068-4), giving information for specification writers, published in
two sections of which the second, in loose-leaf form, contains summaries of all the
current tests in IEC 60068-2;
NOTE – Fire hazard tests are separately published in IEC 60695.

1.2 The following historical survey gives the significant features of this and of the earlier
editions:

First edition (1954)

Contained not only the general part but also many of the individual tests which now form part
of the IEC 60068-2 series.
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 2

Second edition (1960)

Format changed to IEC 60068-1: General. Tests published separately as IEC 60068-2 series.
Degrees of severity were included for all tests.

Third edition (1968)

Degrees of severity dropped, many more definitions included which were amended and added
to in amendment 1, December 1972, and component climatic category introduced. The
recovery clause (subclause 5.4) was intended to apply to normal applications so that ALL
SPECIMENS would be submitted to rigidly controlled conditions, unless otherwise specified.
Supplement A was issued in December 1974 to add further definitions of combined and
composite tests and sequences of tests.

Fourth edition (1978)

Amendment 1 and Supplement A to the third edition were incorporated in this edition and an
amendment to standard recovery conditions, also including further recovery conditions with
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wider tolerances on temperature and humidity, was added to the original 5.4 of the third
edition.

Fifth edition (1982)

This edition comprised the text of the fourth edition with the addition of clause 10:
Significance of the numerical value of a quantity, and of an annex giving general guidance on
environmental testing.

Sixth edition (1988)

This edition contains a largely editorial revision of the fifth edition, the technical content of
IEC 60160, which will be withdrawn, and technical amendments of clause 7 and annex A.

1.3 The families of tests comprising Part 2 of this publication are designated by the following
upper-case letters:

A: Cold.
B: Dry heat.
C: Damp heat (steady-state).
D: Damp heat (cyclic).
E: Impact (for example shack and bump).
F: Vibration.
G: Acceleration (steady state).
H: Awaiting allocation (was originally allotted to ''storage” tests for which see note in item
a) of 1.1.
J: Mould growth.
K: Corrosive atmospheres (for example salt mist).
L: Dust and sand.
M: Air pressure (high or low).
N: Change of temperature.
P: Awaiting allocation (was originally allotted to “flammability” tests now being dealt with as
“fire hazard” tests in IEC 60695).
Q: Sealing (including panel sealing, container sealing and protection against ingress and
leakage of fluid).
R: Water (for example rain, dripping water).
S: Radiation (for example solar, but excluding electromagnetic).
T: Soldering (including resistance to heat from soldering).
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 3

U: Robustness of terminations (of components).

V: Awaiting allocation (was originally allocated to “acoustic noise” but “vibration,
acoustically induced” will now be Test Fg, one of the “vibration” family of tests).
W: Awaiting allocation.
Y: Awaiting allocation.

The letter X is used as a prefix together with a second upper-case letter providing for
extension of the list of families of tests, e.g. Test XA: Immersion in cleaning solvents. The
letter Z is used to denote combined tests and composite tests as follows: Z is followed by a
solidus and a group of upper-case letters relating to the combined or composite stresses, for
example Test Z/AM: Combined cold and low air pressure tests.

If appropriate, any test may be designated as “primarily intended for components” or

“primarily intended for equipment”.

1.4 To provide for future expansion within a family of tests and to maintain consistency of
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presentation, each family of tests may be subdivided. The subdivisions are identified by the
addition of a (lower-case) second letter, for example:

U: Robustness of terminations and integral mounting devices

Test Ua: Subdivided as Test Ua 1 : Tensile and Test Ua 2 : Thrust
Test Ub: Bending
Test Uc: Torsion
Test Ud: Torque

This subdivision will be made even though only one test is published and no further tests are
immediately contemplated in the relevant family.

In order to avoid confusion with numbers, the letters i, I, o and O will not be used.

1.5 See editorial footnote 1

2 Scope

IEC 60068 includes a series of methods of environmental test and their appropriate severities,
and prescribes various atmospheric conditions for measurements and tests designed to
assess the ability of specimens to perform under expected conditions of transportation,
storage and all aspects of operational use.

Although primarily intended for electrotechnical products this publication is not restricted to
them and may be used in other fields where desired.

Other methods of environmental test, specific to the individual types of specimen, may be
included in the relevant specifications.

3 Object

The object of IEC 60068 is to provide a series of uniform and reproducible methods of
environmental (primarily climatic and mechanical robustness) test, with standard atmospheric
conditions for measurements and tests, for those preparing specifications and for those
engaged in the testing of those products.

____________________________________________________________________________
1 Editorial note – ”Safety pilot functions” (see IEC Guide 104) have been allocated to subcommittee 50A for
“mechanical robustness” testing and to subcommittee 50B for “corrosion” testing.

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AS 60068.1-2003, Environmental testing General

and guidance
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