Arc Flash, IEC 61641 "Arc Free" and NFPA 70E / IEEE 1584 2

[HenryOhm]

All,

To the best of my knowledge, North American standards like NFPA 70E and IEEE 1584 regarding arc flash have no equivalent to IEC 61641 for "arc ignition protected zones". I understand the IEC used to refer to this as "arc free".

In Section 1 (Scope) of the IEC 61641, it ends with the sentence, "This is a voluntary test made at the discretion of the manufacturer." At the very end of the standard in Annex B, it has this very curious note (that is suggested to need inserted right after the Section 1 last sentence):

"NOTE 2 The recommendations of this report are not acceptable in the USA, nor in Canada, nor in the United Kingdom."

Can anyone speak to why this was inserted. There were some misgivings in earlier posts here regarding IEC 61641. This note appears to have actually written into the standard some sort of significant split.

Thanks in advance for any potential help.

 

[wbd]

You may want to post this question in Jim Phillips' brainfiller arcflash forum as there are people there who have been on the standards committees and should be able to answer.

 

[Kiribanda]

I too agree with wbd.

 

[HenryOhm]

OK, I've posted there as well. Thanks for the suggestion. Of course, if anyone here has any thoughts, would certainly appreciate it.