JA2011 - Battery Chargers
The focus of the activity part of Joint Actions 2011 was to detect if dangerous products are present on the European market and, if yes, to remove them, to develop best practices and to exchange experience by carrying out market surveillance on such products.
The following 8 Member States are participating in the Battery Chargers Activity: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden. Luxembourg participated out of the financial scheme.
The participants sampled and sent for testing power supply units, battery chargers and USB chargers. The purpose of the testing was to identify dangerous non-compliances so that a market surveillance authority can decide whether a specific product presents such a risk for consumers that action should be taken against it.
The standards applied for the tests are: EN 60950-1:2006; EN 60335-2-29:2004; EN 60065: 2002; EN 61558-2-7: 2007; EN 61558-2-16: 2009 including the relevant amendments. The tests focused on the requirements that are most important for the safety:
- Electrical insulation
- Clearances, creepage distances and solid insulation
- Reliability of connections for live conductors to PCB
- Mechanical strength
- Resistance to fire
- Touch current and protective conductor current
- Electric strength
To name some of the main risks that may be expected from battery chargers: electric shock due to insufficient insulation or creepage or clearance distances; dimensional non compliances (e.g. insufficient thickness of sleeves on pins); mechanical resistance; lack of or insufficient instructions for use; instructions for use not in the local language.
The activity has also developed a checklist, an Atlas on battery chargers and instructions for inspections.
Read the final report here.