BS EN 60216-5:2008

What is BS EN 60216-5 - RTE of an insulating material about?

BS EN 60216-5 is a European standard and the fifth part of the BS EN 60216 series that discusses the determination of the relative thermal endurance index (RTE) of insulating material for the electrical insulating materials. The purpose of an insulator is to prevent the unwanted flow of current from the energized conductor or conducting parts. Electrical insulation plays a vital role in every electrical system by providing a very high resistance so that practically no current can flow through it.

BS EN 60216-5 specifies the experimental and calculation procedures to be used for deriving the relative thermal endurance index of material from experimental data obtained by the instructions of IEC 60216-1 and IEC 60216-2. The calculation procedures are supplementary to those of IEC 60216-3.

The calculation procedures of BS EN 60216-5 also apply to the determination of the thermal class of an electrical insulation system when the thermal stress is the prevailing ageing factor.

Who is BS EN 60216-5 - RTE of an insulating material for?

BS EN 60216-5 on electrical insulating materials applies to:

• Manufacturers of electrical insulating materials
• Manufacturer of electric cables
• Quality testing personnel
• Electrical engineers

Why should you use BS EN 60216-5- RTE of an insulating material?

Electrical insulating materials are solid or fluid with negligibly low electric conductivity or a simple combination of such materials used to separate conducting parts at the different electrical potentials in electrotechnical devices. The RTE is a numerical value of the temperature in degrees Celsius at which the estimated time to an endpoint of the candidate EIM is the same as the estimated time to an endpoint of the reference EIM at a temperature equal to its assessed thermal endurance (ATE).

BS EN 60216-5 determines the RTE in which it exploits an assumed relationship between thermal endurance and service performance and uses this to predict a value for a preliminary assessment of the service temperature of a material for which there is relatively little service experience.

BS EN 60216-5 specifies the experimental procedures and calculation procedures as well as the material testing by short-term thermal ageing and insulation classification.

With BS EN 60216-5, you can gain detailed instruction that will be valuable throughout the manufacturing process of electrical insulating materials.

What’s changed since the last update?

BS EN 60216-5:2008 supersedes EN 60216-5:2003. BS EN 60216-5:2008 includes some technical changes with respect to EN 60216-5:2003. These include:

• EN 60216-5:2008 clarifies and corrects a few items and adds an Annex D which provides criteria for the selection of the reference (or reference EIM).
• EN 60216-5:2008 provides instructions for deriving a provisional estimate of the temperature up to which a material may give satisfactory performance in an application (by comparative thermal ageing with a material of known performance).