SIST EN IEC 61810-4:2021

Electromechanical elementary relays - Part 4: Reed relays - General and safety requirements

IEC 61810-4:2020 applies to electromechanical elementary relays with reed switches (reed contacts) incorporated into general control circuits. It defines the basic functional and safety requirements in all areas of electrical engineering or electronics in accordance with the parts of IEC 61810 series and IEC 62246 series.
IEC 61810-4:2020 defines technical deviations/additions to IEC 61810-1. It specifies type tests, routine tests, special tests and environmental tests to confirm the service conditions for applications.

Elektromechanische Elementarrelais - Teil 4: Allgemeine- und Sicherheitsanforderungen für Reedrelais

Relais électromécaniques élémentaires - Partie 4: Exigences générales et de sécurité relatives aux relais à lames souples

L'IEC 61810-4:2020 s’applique aux relais électromécaniques élémentaires dont les contacts à lames souples sont destinés à être intégrés dans des circuits de commande générale. Elle définit les exigences fonctionnelles et les exigences de sécurité fondamentales dans tous les domaines de l’électrotechnique ou de l’électronique, conformément aux parties des séries IEC 61810 et IEC 62246.
Le présent document définit les écarts/ajouts techniques par rapport à l’IEC 61810-1. Il spécifie les essais de type, les essais individuels de série, les essais spéciaux et les essais d’environnement destinés à confirmer les conditions de service pour les applications.

Elektromehanski osnovni releji - 4. del: Reed-releji - Splošne in varnostne zahteve za reed-releje

General Information

• Status: Published
• Public Enquiry End Date: 14-Apr-2020
• Publication Date: 26-Jan-2021
• ICS: 29.120.70 - Relays
• Technical Committee: ISS EIT.ERE - All-or-nothing electrical relays
• Current Stage: 6060 - National Implementation/Publication (Adopted Project)
• Start Date: 13-Jan-2021
• Due Date: 20-Mar-2021
• Completion Date: 27-Jan-2021
• Ref Project: EN IEC 61810-4:2020 - Electromechanical elementary relays - Part 4: General and safety requirements for reed relays

Overview

EN IEC 61810-4:2020 - Electromechanical elementary relays, Part 4: General and safety requirements for reed relays - specifies the functional and safety requirements for electromechanical elementary relays that incorporate reed switches (reed contacts) for general control circuits. This European adoption of IEC 61810-4:2020 defines technical deviations and additions to IEC 61810-1, aligns with the IEC 62246 series for reed switches, and sets out test regimes to confirm service conditions and safe operation.

Key Topics and Requirements

• Scope and normative references: Defines applicability to reed-relay types and references related IEC standards and environmental test standards (e.g., IEC 60068 series).
• Rated values and influence quantities: Requirements for specifying rated voltages, currents and environmental influences relevant to reed relays.
• Testing framework:
  • Type tests: Verification on representative samples (electrical, mechanical, environmental).
  • Routine tests: Production-level tests to ensure consistent quality.
  • Special tests and environmental tests: For specific applications and harsh environments (including railway rolling stock).
• Electrical performance requirements: Includes dielectric strength, insulation resistance, electrical endurance and short‑circuit considerations.
• Mechanical requirements: Mechanical endurance, vibration and shock testing procedures and acceptance criteria.
• Safety-related design topics: Clearances, creepage distances, solid insulation and sealing to mitigate electrical and environmental hazards.
• Documentation and marking: Mandatory information for manufacturers to provide safe use, mounting, and specification details.
• Annexes: Informative and normative annexes cover reed-contact specifics, high‑frequency characteristics, and environmental category tests.

Applications

EN IEC 61810-4:2020 is intended for:

• Design and manufacture of reed relays used in control circuits across electronics, telecommunications, industrial automation and transportation.
• Qualification and type approval testing for components used in equipment where reliable switching and safety are required.
• Applications requiring conformity to recognized safety and environmental test regimes - for example, railway rolling stock and other safety-critical systems.

Who Uses This Standard

• Relay and reed-switch manufacturers
• Product safety and compliance engineers
• Testing and certification laboratories
• System integrators and OEMs specifying components for industrial, rail, and consumer electronics
• Procurement teams setting supplier quality requirements

Related Standards

• IEC 61810-1 (General and safety requirements)
• IEC 61810 series (reliability, test procedures)
• IEC 62246-1 (Reed switches generic specification)
• IEC 60068 (Environmental testing)
• IEC 60529 (Ingress protection / IP codes)

Keywords: EN IEC 61810-4:2020, reed relays, electromechanical elementary relays, safety requirements, type tests, environmental tests, dielectric strength, IEC 62246.

Standards Content (Sample)

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-marec-2021
Elektromehanski osnovni releji - 4. del: Reed-releji - Splošne in varnostne zahteve
za reed-releje
Electromechanical elementary relays - Part 4: Reed relays - General and safety
requirements
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: EN IEC 61810-4:2020
ICS:
29.120.70 Releji Relays
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

EUROPEAN STANDARD EN IEC 61810-4

NORME EUROPÉENNE
EUROPÄISCHE NORM
December 2020
ICS 29.120.70
English Version
Electromechanical elementary relays - Part 4: General and
safety requirements for reed relays
(IEC 61810-4:2020)
Relais électromécaniques élémentaires - Partie 4: Elektromechanische Elementarrelais - Teil 4: Reedrelais -
Exigences générales et de sécurité relatives aux relais à Allgemeine und Sicherheitsanforderungen
lames souples (IEC 61810-4:2020)
(IEC 61810-4:2020)
This European Standard was approved by CENELEC on 2020-12-09. CENELEC members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC
Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration.
Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC
Management Centre or to any CENELEC member.
This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation
under the responsibility of a CENELEC member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the
same status as the official versions.
CENELEC members are the national electrotechnical committees of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic,
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the
Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,
Turkey and the United Kingdom.

European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization
Comité Européen de Normalisation Electrotechnique
Europäisches Komitee für Elektrotechnische Normung
CEN-CENELEC Management Centre: Rue de la Science 23, B-1040 Brussels
© 2020 CENELEC All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved worldwide for CENELEC Members.
Ref. No. EN IEC 61810-4:2020 E

European foreword
The text of document 94/482/FDIS, future edition 1 of IEC 61810-4, prepared by IEC/TC 94 "All-or-
nothing electrical relays" was submitted to the IEC-CENELEC parallel vote and approved by
CENELEC as EN IEC 61810-4:2020.
The following dates are fixed:
• latest date by which the document has to be implemented at national (dop) 2021-09-09
level by publication of an identical national standard or by endorsement
• latest date by which the national standards conflicting with the (dow) 2023-12-09
document have to be withdrawn
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. CENELEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
Endorsement notice
The text of the International Standard IEC 61810-4:2020 was approved by CENELEC as a European
Standard without any modification.
In the official version, for Bibliography, the following notes have to be added for the standards
indicated:
IEC 60068 (series) NOTE Harmonized as EN 60068 (series)
IEC 60068-2-6 NOTE Harmonized as EN 60068-2-6
IEC 60068-2-27 NOTE Harmonized as EN 60068-2-27
IEC 60529:1989 NOTE Harmonized as EN 60529:1991 (not modified)
IEC 60529:1989/A1:1999 NOTE Harmonized as EN 60529:1991/A1:2000 (not modified)
IEC 60529:1989/A2:2013 NOTE Harmonized as EN 60529:1991/A2:2013 (not modified)
IEC 60721-3-3:2019 NOTE Harmonized as EN IEC 60721-3-3:2019 (not modified)
IEC 60870-2-2:1996 NOTE Harmonized as EN 60870-2-2:1996 (not modified)
IEC 60947-1:2020 NOTE Harmonized as EN IEC 60947-1:— (not modified)
IEC 61643-21:2000 NOTE Harmonized as EN 61643-21:2001 (not modified)
IEC 61643-21:2000/A1:2008 NOTE Harmonized as EN 61643-21:2001/A1:2009
IEC 61643-21:2000/A2:2012 NOTE Harmonized as EN 61643-21:2001/A2:2013 (not modified)
IEC 61810 (series) NOTE Harmonized as EN 61810 (series)
ISO 4589-2:2017 NOTE Harmonized as EN ISO 4589-2:2017 (not modified)
ISO 5659-2:2017 NOTE Harmonized as EN ISO 5659-2:2017 (not modified)

To be published. Stage at the time of publication: FprEN IEC 60947-1:2020.
Annex ZA
(normative)
Normative references to international publications
with their corresponding European publications
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content
constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For
undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments)
applies.
NOTE 1  Where an International Publication has been modified by common modifications, indicated by (mod),
the relevant EN/HD applies.
NOTE 2  Up-to-date information on the latest versions of the European Standards listed in this annex is available
here: www.cenelec.eu.
Publication Year Title EN/HD Year
IEC 60068-2-17 1994 Basic environmental testing procedures - EN 60068-2-17 1994
Part 2-17: Tests - Test Q: Sealing
IEC 60077-1 2017 Railway applications - Electric equipment EN 60077-1 2017
for rolling stock - Part 1: General service
conditions and general rules
IEC 60077-2 2017 Railway applications - Electric equipment EN 60077-2 2017
for rolling stock - Part 2: Electrotechnical
components - General rules
IEC 60571 2012 Railway applications - Electronic - -
equipment used on rolling stock
IEC 61373 2010 Railway applications - Rolling stock EN 61373 2010
equipment - Shock and vibration tests
IEC 61810-1 2015 Electromechanical elementary relays - Part EN 61810-1 2015
1: General and safety requirements
+ A1 2019 + A1 2020
IEC 61810-2 2017 Electromechanical elementary relays - Part EN 61810-2 2017
2: Reliability
IEC 61810-2-1 2017 Electromechanical elementary relays - Part EN 61810-2-1 2017
2-1: Reliability - Procedure for the
verification of B values
IEC 61810-7 2006 Electromechanical elementary relays - Part EN 61810-7 2006
7: Test and measurement procedures
IEC 61810-10 2019 Electromechanical elementary relays - Part EN IEC 61810-10 2019
10: Additional functional aspects and
safety requirements for high-capacity
relays
Publication Year Title EN/HD Year
IEC 62246-1 2015 Reed switches - Part 1: Generic EN 62246-1 2015
specification
IEC 62246-1-1 2018 Reed switches - Part 1-1: Generic EN IEC 62246-1-1 2018
specification - Blank detail specification
IEC 62497-1 2010 Railway applications - Insulation - -
coordination - Part 1: Basic requirements -
Clearances and creepage distances for all
electrical and electronic equipment
+A1 2013 - -
IEC 62498-1 2010 Railway applications - Environmental - -
conditions for equipment - Part 1:
Equipment on board rolling stock

IEC 61810-4 ®
Edition 1.0 2020-11
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
NORME
INTERNATIONALE
Electromechanical elementary relays –

Part 4: General and safety requirements for reed relays

Relais électromécaniques élémentaires –

Partie 4: Exigences générales et de sécurité relatives aux relais à lames souples

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
COMMISSION
ELECTROTECHNIQUE
INTERNATIONALE
ICS 29.120.70 ISBN 978-2-8322-9010-1

– 2 – IEC 61810-4:2020 © IEC 2020
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 4
INTRODUCTION . 6
1 Scope . 7
2 Normative references . 7
3 Terms and definitions . 8
4 Influence quantities . 10
5 Rated values . 10
6 General provisions for testing . 11
6.1 General . 11
6.2 Type tests . 11
6.3 Routine tests. 12
6.4 Special tests . 13
7 Documentation and marking . 13
8 Heating . 14
9 Basic operating function . 14
10 Dielectric strength . 15
11 Electrical endurance . 16
12 Mechanical endurance . 16
13 Clearances, creepage distances and solid insulation . 16
13.1 General provisions . 16
14 Terminations . 16
15 Sealing . 16
16 Heat and fire resistance . 16
17 Short circuit capacity . 17
18 Vibration . 17
18.1 Procedure . 17
18.2 Requirements . 17
19 Shock . 17
19.1 Procedure . 17
19.2 Requirements . 18
Annexes . 19
Annex A (normative) Explanation regarding reed contacts of reed relays . 20
Annex P (informative) High frequency characteristics test . 21
P.1 General . 21
P.2 Procedures . 21
P.3 Requirements . 22
Annex Q (informative) Special tests – Tests for environmental category . 23
Q.1 General . 23
Q.2 Classification of equipment . 23
Q.3 Special tests for applications . 23
Q.4 Railway applications – Rolling stock. 23
Q.5 Tests and requirements . 24
Bibliography . 27

IEC 61810-4:2020 © IEC 2020 – 3 –
Figure 1 – Example of test arrangement for multi mounting . 14
Figure A.1 – Example explaining terms relating to reed contacts of reed relay . 20
Figure P.1 – Measurement circuit for scattering parameters measurement . 22

Table 1 – Insulation resistance . 10
Table 2 – Frequency range . 11
Table 3 – Type testing . 12
Table 4 – Routine tests . 12
Table 5 – Special relays data . 13
Table 6 – Dielectric voltage . 15
Table 7 – Vibration test conditions . 17
Table 8 – Shock test conditions . 17
Table Q.1 – Special requirements for railway applications – rolling stock . 24
Table Q.2 – Special tests for railway applications – rolling stock . 24

– 4 – IEC 61810-4:2020 © IEC 2020
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
ELECTROMECHANICAL ELEMENTARY RELAYS –

Part 4: General and safety requirements for reed relays

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 61810-4 has been prepared by IEC technical committee 94: All-or-
nothing electrical relays.
The text of this document is based on the following documents:
FDIS Report on voting
94/482/FDIS 94/484/RVD
Full information on the voting for the approval of this document 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.
A list of all parts of IEC 61810 series, published under the general title Electromechanical
elementary relays, can be found on the IEC website.
This document is to be read in conjunction with IEC 61810-1.

IEC 61810-4:2020 © IEC 2020 – 5 –
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.
– 6 – IEC 61810-4:2020 © IEC 2020
INTRODUCTION
Reed relays have been used in wide fields such as household and similar appliances, security
control systems for appliances, measuring instruments, medical equipment, semiconductor and
chip test equipment, information and communication equipment, power distribution facilities and
transit vehicles, etc.
IEC 61810-4 provides technical deviations/additions to IEC 61810-1 in order to specify general
and safety requirements for reed relays, as a result of component safety standards for relevant
systems.
The reed switches are used as the switching contacts of the reed relays, all the requirements
for reed contacts (reed switches) within the reed relay are read in conjunction with IEC 62246
(all parts).
IEC 61810-4:2020 © IEC 2020 – 7 –
ELECTROMECHANICAL ELEMENTARY RELAYS –

Part 4: General and safety requirements for reed relays

1 Scope
This part of IEC 61810 applies to electromechanical elementary relays with reed switches (reed
contacts) incorporated into general control circuits. It defines the basic functional and safety
requirements in all areas of electrical engineering or electronics in accordance with the parts of
IEC 61810 series and IEC 62246 series.
This document defines technical deviations/additions to IEC 61810-1. It specifies type tests,
routine tests, special tests and environmental tests to confirm the service conditions for
applications.
NOTE The terms reed switch(es) and reed contact(s) are both in use for the description of the contact set in reed
relays.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content
constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies.
For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any
amendments) applies.
IEC 60068-2-17:1994, Basic environmental testing procedures – Part 2-17: Tests – Test Q:
Sealing
IEC 60077-1:2017, Railway applications – Electric equipment for rolling stock – Part 1: General
service conditions and general rules
IEC 60077-2:2017, Railway applications – Electric equipment for rolling stock – Part 2:
Electrotechnical components – General rules
IEC 60571:2012, Railway applications – Electric equipment used on rolling stock
IEC 61373:2010, Railway applications – Rolling stock equipment – Shock and vibration tests
IEC 61810-1:2015, Electromechanical elementary relays – Part 1: General and safety
requirements
IEC 61810-1:2015/AMD1:2019
IEC 61810-2:2017, Electromechanical elementary relays – Part 2: Reliability
IEC 61810-2-1:2017, Electromechanical elementary relays – Part 2-1: Reliability – Procedure
for the verification of B values
IEC 61810-7:2006, Electromechanical elementary relays – Part 7: Test and measurement
procedures
IEC 61810-10:2019, Electromechanical elementary relays – Part 10: Additional functional
aspects and safety requirements for high-capacity relays

– 8 – IEC 61810-4:2020 © IEC 2020
IEC 62246-1:2015, Reed switches – Part 1: Generic specification
IEC 62246-1-1:2018, Reed switches – Part 1-1: Generic specification – Blank detail
specification
IEC 62497-1:2010, Railway applications – Insulation coordination – Part 1: Basic requirements
– Clearances and creepage distances for all electrical and electronic equipment
IEC 62497-1:2010/AMD1:2013
IEC 62498-1:2010, Railway applications – Environmental conditions for equipment – Part 1:
Equipment on board rolling stock
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in IEC 61810-1 and the
following apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following
addresses:
• IEC Electropedia: available at http://www.electropedia.org/
• ISO Online browsing platform: available at http://www.iso.org/obp
3.2 Terms and definitions of relay types
3.2 of IEC 61810-1:2015 is applicable with the following addition:
3.2.7
reed relay
electromechanical control circuit devices with connecting terminals, consisting of reed switch
sets (reed contact sets) and coil fitting with/without a housing which could be plastic or metal
Note 1 to entry: See Figure A.1.
3.4 Terms and definitions of operating values
3.4 of IEC 61810-1:2015 is applicable with the following addition:
3.4.7
magnetic interference
tendency of a relay to be influenced by the magnetic field from an adjacent energized relay or
any other surrounding solenoid
Note 1 to entry: This influence can result in depression or elevation of the operate and release voltage of the
affected relay, possibly causing them to fall outside their specification.
Note 2 to entry: Magnetic interference can be minimized by alternating the polarity of adjacent relay coils, by
magnetic shielding, or by placing two relays at right angles to each other.
3.8 Terms and definitions related to high frequency characteristics
3.8.1
frequency range
set of frequencies over which an equipment can be adjusted to operate
satisfactorily
Note 1 to entry: The frequency range of a relay can be subdivided into switched subranges which may or may not
be contiguous.
IEC 61810-4:2020 © IEC 2020 – 9 –
[SOURCE: IEC 60050-702:1992, 702-09-68, modified – “an equipment“ has been replaced
with “a relay” in the “Note 1 to entry”]
3.8.2
capacitance
ability to store an electric charge between contacts
3.8.3
capacitance
ability to store an electric charge between contact and coil
Note 1 to entry: It can have adverse effects for use in high frequency signal transmission circuits of information and
communication equipment.
3.8.4
impedance
quotient of a voltage by a current for a passive linear two-terminal element or two-
terminal circuit with terminals A and B under sinusoidal conditions
[SOURCE: IEC 60050-131:2013, 131-12-43, modified – The definition has been replaced]
3.8.5
isolation
ratio of the power delivered to the output port of a relay, with open contacts, at a
specific frequency, compared to the power emitted from the corresponding output port
3.8.6
insertion loss
resulting from the insertion of a network into a transmission system, the ratio of the power
delivered to that part of the system following the network, before insertion of the network, to the
power delivered to that same part after insertion of the network
Note 1 to entry: The insertion loss is generally expressed in decibels.
[SOURCE: IEC 60050-726:1982, 726-06-07]
3.8.7
return loss
modulus of the reciprocal of the reflection factor, generally expressed in decibels
Note 1 to entry: When impedances can be defined, the return loss is given by the formula:
Z−Z'
−=20lg r 20lg
Z+ Z'
where Z is the characteristic impedance of a transmission line ahead of a discontinuity, or the impedance of a source,
and Z′ is the impedance after the discontinuity or the load impedance seen from the junction between the source and
the load.
[SOURCE: IEC 60050-702:1992, 702-07-25]
3.8.8
repeatability
closeness of agreement between the results of successive
measurements of the same measurand, carried out under the same conditions of measurement,
i.e.:
– by the same measurement procedure;

– 10 – IEC 61810-4:2020 © IEC 2020
– by the same observer;
– with the same measuring instruments, used under the same conditions;
– in the same laboratory;
– at relatively short intervals of time.
[SOURCE: IEC 60050-311:2001, 311-06-06, modified – The Note has been omitted.
...