IEC 61969-3:2020

Mechanical structures for electrical and electronic equipment - Outdoor enclosures - Part 3: Environmental requirements, tests and safety aspects

IEC 61969-3:2020 specifies a set of basic environmental requirements and tests, as well as safety aspects for outdoor enclosures under conditions of non-weather protected locations above ground. The purpose of this document is to define a minimum level of environmental performance in order to meet requirements of storage, transport and final installation. The intention is to establish basic environmental performance criteria for outdoor enclosure compliance. This third edition cancels and replaces the second edition published in 2011. This edition constitutes a technical revision. This edition includes the following significant technical changes with respect to the previous edition:
- alignment with the content of ETSI EN 300 019 and IEC 60721 series latest editions, particularly with the actualization of climate conditions;
- new requirements added to reflect market requirements on environmental issues;
- improvement on terminology and overall editorial improvement.

Structures mécaniques pour équipement électrique et électronique - Enveloppes de plein air - Partie 3: Exigences et essais d'environnement, et aspects liés à la sécurité

L'IEC 61969-3: 2020 spécifie un ensemble d’exigences et d’essais d’environnement de base, ainsi que les aspects liés à la sécurité relatifs aux enveloppes de plein air placées dans les conditions suivantes: emplacement non protégé contre les intempéries, au-dessus du sol. L’objet du présent document est de définir un niveau minimal de performances environnementales, afin de répondre aux exigences de stockage, de transport et d’installation finale. Il s’agit d’établir des critères de performances environnementales de base en vue de la conformité des enveloppes de plein air. Cette troisième édition annule et remplace la deuxième édition parue en 2011. Cette édition constitue une révision technique. Cette édition inclut les modifications techniques majeures suivantes par rapport à l'édition précédente:
- alignement avec le contenu des dernières éditions des séries ETSI EN 300 019 et IEC 60721, en particulier concernant l’actualisation des conditions climatiques;
- ajout de nouvelles exigences pour refléter celles du marché relatives aux questions environnementales;
- amélioration de la terminologie et modifications éditoriales générales.

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 07-Jun-2020
• ICS: 01 - GENERALITIES. TERMINOLOGY. STANDARDIZATION. DOCUMENTATION
• ICS: 31.240 - Mechanical structures for electronic equipment
• Technical Committee: SC 48D - Mechanical structures for electrical and electronic equipment
• Drafting Committee: MT 1 - TC 48/SC 48D/MT 1

Relations

• Revised: IEC 61969-3:2023 - Mechanical structures for electrical and electronic equipment - Outdoor enclosures - Part 3: Environmental requirements, tests and safety aspects
• Effective Date: 05-Sep-2023
• Revises: IEC 61969-3:2011 - Mechanical structures for electronic equipment - Outdoor enclosures - Part 3: Environmental requirements, tests and safety aspects
• Effective Date: 05-Sep-2023

Standards Content (Sample)

IEC 61969-3 ®
Edition 3.0 2020-06
REDLINE VERSION
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
colour
inside
Mechanical structures for electrical and electronic equipment – Outdoor
enclosures –
Part 3: Environmental requirements, tests and safety aspects

All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form

or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from

either IEC or IEC's member National Committee in the country of the requester. If you have any questions about IEC
copyright or have an enquiry about obtaining additional rights to this publication, please contact the address below or

your local IEC member National Committee for further information.

IEC Central Office Tel.: [phone]
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About the IEC
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is the leading global organization that prepares and publishes
International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies.

About IEC publications
The technical content of IEC publications is kept under constant review by the IEC. Please make sure that you have the
latest edition, a corrigendum or an amendment might have been published.

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IEC 61969-3 ®
Edition 3.0 2020-06
REDLINE VERSION
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
colour
inside
Mechanical structures for electrical and electronic equipment – Outdoor

enclosures –
Part 3: Environmental requirements, tests and safety aspects

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
ICS 31.240 ISBN 978-2-8322-8508-4

– 2 – IEC 61969-3:2020 RLV © IEC 2020

CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 3

INTRODUCTION . 5

1 Scope . 6

2 Normative references . 6

3 Terms and definitions . 8

4 Coordination dimensions . 8

5 Environmental requirements, tests and safety aspects – Classification
of environmental conditions . 8
6 Test conditions . 9
6.1 General . 9
6.2 Climatic tests . 9
6.3 Biological tests . 10
6.4 Tests of resistance against chemically active substances . 10
6.5 Tests of resistance against mechanically active substances . 12
7 Mechanical tests . 12
7.1 General . 12
7.2 Dynamic Transport tests . 12
7.3 Lifting and stiffness test . 14
8 Safety aspects . 14
8.1 General . 14
8.2 Locking devices . 15
8.3 Vandalism resistance . 15
8.4 Bullet Firearms resistance (optional) . 15
9 Seismic requirements . 15
10 Electromagnetic shielding performance . 15
11 Thermal management . 15
12 Noise emission . 16
Bibliography . 17

Table 1 – Climatic conditions for environmental classes 1 and 2 . 9
Table 2 – Biological tests . 10

Table 3 – Tests of resistance against chemically active substances . 11
Table 4 – Tests of resistance against mechanically active substances . 12
Table 5 – Vibration and shock test . 13
Table 6 – Safety aspects .

INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION

____________
MECHANICAL STRUCTURES FOR ELECTRICAL

AND ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT – OUTDOOR ENCLOSURES –

Part 3: Environmental requirements, tests and safety aspects

FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote international
co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To this end and
in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications, Technical Reports,
Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as “IEC Publication(s)”). Their
preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested in the subject dealt with
may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-governmental organizations liaising
with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely with the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined by agreement between the two organizations.
2) The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international
consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all
interested IEC National Committees.
3) IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National
Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC
Publications is accurate, IEC cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any
misinterpretation by any end user.
4) In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC Publications
transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence between
any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in the latter.
5) IEC itself does not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity
assessment services and, in some areas, access to IEC marks of conformity. IEC is not responsible for any
services carried out by independent certification bodies.
6) All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
7) No liability shall attach to IEC or its directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts and
members of its technical committees and IEC National Committees for any personal injury, property damage or
other damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, or for costs (including legal fees) and
expenses arising out of the publication, use of, or reliance upon, this IEC Publication or any other IEC Publications.
8) Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is
indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
9) Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this IEC Publication may be the subject of patent
rights. IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
This redline version of the official IEC Standard allows the user to identify the changes

made to the previous edition. A vertical bar appears in the margin wherever a change has
been made. Additions are in green text, deletions are in strikethrough red text.

– 4 – IEC 61969-3:2020 RLV © IEC 2020

International Standard IEC 61969-3 has been prepared by subcommittee 48D: Mechanical

structures for electrical and electronic equipment, of IEC technical committee 48: Electrical

connectors and mechanical structures for electrical and electronic equipment.

This third edition cancels and replaces the second edition published in 2011. This edition

constitutes a technical revision.

This edition includes the following significant technical changes with respect to the previous

edition:
a) alignment with the content of ETSI EN 300 019 and IEC 60721 series latest editions,

particularly with the actualization of climate conditions;
b) new requirements added to reflect market requirements on environmental issues;
c) improvement on terminology and overall editorial improvement.
The text of this International Standard is based on the following documents:
FDIS Report on voting
48D/721/FDIS 48D/724/RVD
Full information on the voting for the approval of this International Standard can be found in the
report on voting indicated in the above table.
This document has been drafted in accordance with the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
This International Standard is to be used in conjunction with IEC 61969-1:2020.
A list of all parts in the IEC 61969 series, published under the general title Mechanical structures
for electrical and electronic equipment – Outdoor enclosures, can be found on the IEC website.
Future standards in this series will carry the new general title as cited above. Titles of existing
standards in this series will be updated at the time of the next edition.
The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the
stability date indicated on the IEC website under "http://webstore.iec.ch" in the data related to
the specific document. At this date, the document will be
• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn,
• replaced by a revised edition, or
• amended.
IMPORTANT – The 'colour inside' logo on the cover page of this publication indicates
that it contains colours which are considered to be useful for the correct understanding
of its contents. Users should therefore print this document using a colour printer.

INTRODUCTION
IEC 61969-3 Ed.2.0 provides basic environmental test requirements to be used in the absence

of local regulatory or application specific environmental test requirements. This provides

manufacturers and users of generic outdoor enclosure solutions with minimum performance

compliance criteria; thermal solutions pending on the environment an outdoor enclosure is

subjected to.
The products covered by IEC 61969 (all parts) are empty enclosures for outdoor locations, to

be equipped with application-specific combinations of electrical and electronic equipment, and

to be used at non-weather protected locations above ground.

IEC 61969 (all parts) consists of:
– a design guidelines general part (IEC 61969-1);
– a coordination dimensions standard (IEC 61969-2);
– an environmental requirements and tests, safety aspects standard (IEC 61969-3).
Thi
...

IEC 61969-3 ®
Edition 3.0 2020-06
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
NORME
INTERNATIONALE
Mechanical structures for electrical and electronic equipment – Outdoor
enclosures –
Part 3: Environmental requirements, tests and safety aspects

Structures mécaniques pour équipement électrique et électronique –
Enveloppes de plein air –
Partie 3: Exigences et essais d'environnement, et aspects liés à la sécurité

All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from
either IEC or IEC's member National Committee in the country of the requester. If you have any questions about IEC
copyright or have an enquiry about obtaining additional rights to this publication, please contact the address below or
your local IEC member National Committee for further information.

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CH-1211 Geneva 20 www.iec.ch
Switzerland
About the IEC
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is the leading global organization that prepares and publishes
International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies.

About IEC publications
The technical content of IEC publications is kept under constant review by the IEC. Please make sure that you have the
latest edition, a corrigendum or an amendment might have been published.

IEC publications search - webstore.iec.ch/advsearchform Electropedia - www.electropedia.org
The advanced search enables to find IEC publications by a The world's leading online dictionary on electrotechnology,
variety of criteria (reference number, text, technical containing more than 22 000 terminological entries in English
committee,…). It also gives information on projects, replaced and French, with equivalent terms in 16 additional languages.
and withdrawn publications. Also known as the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary

(IEV) online.
IEC Just Published - webstore.iec.ch/justpublished
Stay up to date on all new IEC publications. Just Published IEC Glossary - std.iec.ch/glossary
details all new publications released. Available online and 67 000 electrotechnical terminology entries in English and
once a month by email. French extracted from the Terms and Definitions clause of
IEC publications issued since 2002. Some entries have been
IEC Customer Service Centre - webstore.iec.ch/csc collected from earlier publications of IEC TC 37, 77, 86 and
If you wish to give us your feedback on this publication or CISPR.

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IEC 61969-3 ®
Edition 3.0 2020-06
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
NORME
INTERNATIONALE
Mechanical structures for electrical and electronic equipment – Outdoor

enclosures –
Part 3: Environmental requirements, tests and safety aspects

Structures mécaniques pour équipement électrique et électronique –

Enveloppes de plein air –
Partie 3: Exigences et essais d'environnement, et aspects liés à la sécurité

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
COMMISSION
ELECTROTECHNIQUE
INTERNATIONALE
ICS 31.240 ISBN 978-2-8322-8339-4

– 2 – IEC 61969-3:2020 © IEC 2020
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 3
INTRODUCTION . 5
1 Scope . 6
2 Normative references . 6
3 Terms and definitions . 7
4 Coordination dimensions . 7
5 Environmental requirements, tests and safety aspects – Classification of
environmental conditions . 7
6 Test conditions . 8
6.1 General . 8
6.2 Climatic tests . 8
6.3 Biological tests . 9
6.4 Tests of resistance against chemically active substances . 9
6.5 Tests of resistance against mechanically active substances . 9
7 Mechanical tests . 10
7.1 General . 10
7.2 Transport tests . 10
7.3 Lifting and stiffness test . 11
8 Safety aspects . 11
8.1 General . 11
8.2 Locking devices . 11
8.3 Vandalism resistance . 11
8.4 Firearms resistance (optional) . 11
9 Seismic requirements . 12
10 Electromagnetic shielding performance . 12
11 Thermal management . 12
12 Noise emission . 12
Bibliography . 13

Table 1 – Climatic conditions for environmental classes 1 and 2 . 8
Table 2 – Biological tests . 9
Table 3 – Tests of resistance against chemically active substances . 9
Table 4 – Tests of resistance against mechanically active substances . 9
Table 5 – Vibration and shock test . 10

INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
MECHANICAL STRUCTURES FOR ELECTRICAL AND
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT – OUTDOOR ENCLOSURES –

Part 3: Environmental requirements, tests and safety aspects

FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote international
co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To this end and
in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications, Technical Reports,
Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as “IEC Publication(s)”). Their
preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested in the subject dealt with
may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-governmental organizations liaising
with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely with the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined by agreement between the two organizations.
2) The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international
consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all
interested IEC National Committees.
3) IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National
Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC
Publications is accurate, IEC cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any
misinterpretation by any end user.
4) In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC Publications
transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence between
any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in the latter.
5) IEC itself does not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity
assessment services and, in some areas, access to IEC marks of conformity. IEC is not responsible for any
services carried out by independent certification bodies.
6) All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
7) No liability shall attach to IEC or its directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts and
members of its technical committees and IEC National Committees for any personal injury, property damage or
other damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, or for costs (including legal fees) and
expenses arising out of the publication, use of, or reliance upon, this IEC Publication or any other IEC Publications.
8) Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is
indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
9) Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this IEC Publication may be the subject of patent
rights. IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
International Standard IEC 61969-3 has been prepared by subcommittee 48D: Mechanical
structures for electrical and electronic equipment, of IEC technical committee 48: Electrical
connectors and mechanical structures for electrical and electronic equipment.
This third edition cancels and replaces the second edition published in 2011. This edition
constitutes a technical revision.
This edition includes the following significant technical changes with respect to the previous
edition:
a) alignment with the content of ETSI EN 300 019 and IEC 60721 series latest editions,
particularly with the actualization of climate conditions;
b) new requirements added to reflect market requirements on environmental issues;
c) improvement on terminology and overall editorial improvement.

– 4 – IEC 61969-3:2020 © IEC 2020
The text of this International St
...