NOM-003-SCFI Electrical Products - Safety Features

The structure of the standard “NOM-003-SCFI Electrical products - Safety features”, published under the Official Mexican Standard (NOM), responds to the needs in accordance with the safety specifications for electrical products marketed within the United Mexican States, whose sections have been defined. This standard refers to the valid Mexican standards, each of which includes safety features depending on the intended use of the electrical products.

This standard specifies the characteristics and safety features that electrical products imported or marketed in the territory of the United Mexican States must meet, in order to prevent danger to consumers and to protect their property, to avoid unacceptable risk of damage, to prevent reasonably foreseeable misuse, based on the characteristics of the products' use, when their installation, storage and use are suitable for their intended purpose, in accordance with the principles set out below:

• Protection against hazards originating from the electrical product itself
• Protection of the electrical product against hazards that may occur due to external factors.
• Safe operation
• Use and storage of electrical products, marking and labelling

For the purposes of this standard, the following definitions apply:

• Household appliances are electrical devices used for domestic or similar purposes, with or without heating elements, motorized or magnetically driven, using the public grid or other energy sources such as batteries, accumulators or self-generation as a source of electrical energy.
• The electrical appliance is used for the following purposes:
  • Allowing or preventing the flow of electrical energy in electrical installations.
  • Supplying other electrical products or control and signalling systems
  • Ensuring that other electrical products or systems are safely connected to the power source
  • Forming part of signalling systems and operating sequences
• A fault condition is a condition in which a hazard protection device fails or a fault occurs that may lead to a hazard. If a fault condition inevitably leads to one or more fault conditions, they are all considered as a single fault condition.
• Control and distribution equipment is equipment that, when installed in an electrical system, can perform the functions of protection (against overload, overcurrent or overvoltage), control, distribution and automation of the circuit itself or of circuits derived from it.

This standard applies to electrical products using public utility electricity as their power source and to products using other energy sources such as batteries, accumulators and self-generation in alternating current or direct current, with nominal voltages up to 1000 Volts in alternating current and up to 1500 Volts in direct current. If an electrical product within the scope of this standard also includes functions covered by other applicable safety standards, those safety standards apply separately for each function.

Although there is no specific safety standard for electrical products, for use in all types of activities, including but not limited to professional, scientific and industrial activities, the requirements, limitations and test methods described in the applicable standards specified in this standard must be followed, complying with the intended use, functions and risk conditions of the product.

However, the following are outside the scope of this standard:

• Electrical products or their components that must comply with a specific safety standard
• Devices used in sea and air transportation
• Devices and equipment designed for use in locations where special conditions apply, such as the presence of explosive atmospheres (dust, vapor or gases)
• Electric motors separately
• Electrical products exempt from specific product standards specified in this standard
• Power sources for electric arc welding and plasma cutting that meet at least one of the following conditions:
  • Having an internal combustion engine
  • Having a nominal three-phase supply voltage
  • Have a single nominal supply voltage of 220 Volts or greater
  • Having more than one supply voltage value that does not include 127 Volt single phase or lower supply voltage value

The general requirements described in this standard are intended to ensure the safety of consumers against possible hazards and damages that may occur during use of electrical products when they are used, installed and maintained under the conditions for which they were designed. The general requirements stated here are verified by the characteristics specified in this standard with a risk approach based on the usage characteristics of the products.

Products must be marked to indicate their essential technical characteristics, in accordance with their intended use and safe use. The Mexican standards referred to and their annexes specify the information on essential technical characteristics and where they are to be marked, in accordance with the intended use and safe use of the product.

The name of the manufacturer or supplier or the manufacturer's brand or trademark must be clearly displayed on the product.

Electrical products must be designed and manufactured to meet the intent of this standard. To ensure consumer protection, the safety of electrical products must address the risks arising from its intended use, taking into account the functionality of the product, including its own specific risk conditions, and the risks arising from external influences on the electrical product itself, taking into account normal use and reasonably foreseeable misuse conditions in terms of those specified in the specific product standard and the absence of unacceptable risk, and must comply with the following requirements:

• Protection against electric shock
• Protection against mechanical hazards
• explosion protection
• Hazards from electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields, ionizing and non-ionizing radiation
• Protection against electrical, magnetic or electromagnetic disturbances
• Protection against optical radiation
• Fire protection
• Protection against thermal effects
• Protection against audible noise
• Protection against biological and chemical effects
• Protection against the emission, production and/or use of hazardous substances
• Protection against hazards arising from unattended or uncontrolled operation
• Protection against hazards arising from connecting and disconnecting the electrical supply
• Protection against hazards arising from the combination of the product with other products
• Safety and functional reliability

These safety requirements are described in detail in the annex to the standard (Annex O).

Our organization, which has been trying to support businesses from every sector with its testing, measurement, analysis and evaluation studies carried out in a wide range for years, has a strong staff that closely follows the developments in the world in the field of science and technology and constantly improves itself. In this context, testing services in accordance with the "NOM-003-SCFI Electrical products - Security features" standard are also provided to businesses.