SAE USCAR 26 Test Procedure for Electrical Ground Attachments

Developed jointly by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and the United States Automotive Research Council (USCAR), the SAE USCAR 26 standard is designed to evaluate and verify electrical grounding schemes for use on body or chassis.

According to the expected environmental conditions, two groups are determined in the standard:

• Open spaces can be found anywhere in the vehicle except the powertrain and are the group most schematics need to be tested.
• Non-exposed areas can only be used in the passenger compartment or trunk and are therefore considered special cases.

In fact, the SAE USCAR 26 standard is not designed to test powertrain floors encountered with high temperatures and vibration levels. These situations require changes in the application of this standard and it is up to the engineer to decide.

Also, this standard does not specifically address terminal verification for wiring electrical crimps. Crimps must be tested to SAE USCAR 21 standard (SAE USCAR 21 Performance specifications for wire-to-terminal electrical mixes).

Electrical ground attachments provide high-quality, visually verifiable connections and dedicated grounding paths to maintain system performance and protect users and equipment. These attachments must meet regulatory standards and have the performance and application range to meet stringent requirements.

After electricity is produced, it has to go down to the ground. So electricity tends to reach ground no matter what. Points defined as loads on the path of electricity are elements such as equipment, devices, sockets and lamps. Due to insulation faults that may arise at these points, electricity tries to reach the ground through the bodies of the devices or the people using this device. That's why grounding conductors are important.

The function of grounding is to ensure that all points connected to the electrical system are connected with the grounding conductor and transferred to the ground. Since electricity always wants to flow to the ground in the shortest way, the resistance value on the path followed by the electricity should be close to zero when using grounding attachments.

Among the numerous test, measurement, analysis and evaluation studies it provides for businesses in various sectors, our organization also provides testing services for electrical earth attachments within the scope of SAE USCAR 26 standard, with its trained and expert staff and advanced technological equipment.