• Minimum clearance for 230V AC.

    From Pimpom@21:1/5 to All on Thu Oct 3 15:41:17 2024
    What's the minimum surface clearance you consider adequate for 230VAC,
    on FR4 without slots or added creepage? Forget about IPC-2221 unless you
    base your layout strictly on it.

    Personally, I try to maintain 3mm edge-to-edge between tracks and pads,
    more if space permits. What do you think?

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  • From Chris Jones@21:1/5 to Pimpom on Thu Oct 3 22:05:37 2024
    On 3/10/2024 8:11 pm, Pimpom wrote:
    What's the minimum surface clearance you consider adequate for 230VAC,
    on FR4 without slots or added creepage? Forget about IPC-2221 unless you
    base your layout strictly on it.

    Personally, I try to maintain 3mm edge-to-edge between tracks and pads,
    more if space permits. What do you think?

    The distance along a surface is called creepage in the standards.

    The required distance depends on whether the insulation is supposed to
    be single insulation (functional, basic or supplementary) or double
    insulation (reinforced insulation).

    Basically, if the insulation failing ought not to kill someone because
    the part that would become live is either protectively earthed or
    separated by supplementary insulation from the user, then a smaller
    creepage is allowable.

    If the insulation failing could immediately give someone a shock because
    there is no protective earthing or supplementary insulation, then a
    larger creepage distance is required.

    The exact distances required in different standards tend to be
    different, though I think a lot of different products that used to be
    subject to different standards have recently been grouped into one set
    of standards, IEC62368-1.

    There are some tables here:
    https://www.powerctc.com/en/node/4757

    I think you are going to come up with something like 2.5mm for basic
    insulation and 5mm for reinforced, but you should check carefully what
    the standards say, and for some classes of equipment it can be much
    more, like 6mm or 8mm.

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  • From piglet@21:1/5 to Chris Jones on Thu Oct 3 13:16:21 2024
    Chris Jones <lugnut808@spam.yahoo.com> wrote:
    On 3/10/2024 8:11 pm, Pimpom wrote:
    What's the minimum surface clearance you consider adequate for 230VAC,
    on FR4 without slots or added creepage? Forget about IPC-2221 unless you
    base your layout strictly on it.

    Personally, I try to maintain 3mm edge-to-edge between tracks and pads,
    more if space permits. What do you think?

    The distance along a surface is called creepage in the standards.

    The required distance depends on whether the insulation is supposed to
    be single insulation (functional, basic or supplementary) or double insulation (reinforced insulation).

    Basically, if the insulation failing ought not to kill someone because
    the part that would become live is either protectively earthed or
    separated by supplementary insulation from the user, then a smaller
    creepage is allowable.

    If the insulation failing could immediately give someone a shock because there is no protective earthing or supplementary insulation, then a
    larger creepage distance is required.

    The exact distances required in different standards tend to be
    different, though I think a lot of different products that used to be
    subject to different standards have recently been grouped into one set
    of standards, IEC62368-1.

    There are some tables here:
    https://www.powerctc.com/en/node/4757

    I think you are going to come up with something like 2.5mm for basic insulation and 5mm for reinforced, but you should check carefully what
    the standards say, and for some classes of equipment it can be much
    more, like 6mm or 8mm.




    I’d also want to consider if the pcb tracks are naked or covered with
    solder mask or conformal coating .

    --
    piglet

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  • From Don@21:1/5 to piglet on Thu Oct 3 15:23:29 2024
    piglet wrote:
    Chris Jones wrote:
    Pimpom wrote:
    What's the minimum surface clearance you consider adequate for 230VAC,
    on FR4 without slots or added creepage? Forget about IPC-2221 unless you >>> base your layout strictly on it.

    Personally, I try to maintain 3mm edge-to-edge between tracks and pads,
    more if space permits. What do you think?

    The distance along a surface is called creepage in the standards.

    The required distance depends on whether the insulation is supposed to
    be single insulation (functional, basic or supplementary) or double
    insulation (reinforced insulation).

    Basically, if the insulation failing ought not to kill someone because
    the part that would become live is either protectively earthed or
    separated by supplementary insulation from the user, then a smaller
    creepage is allowable.

    If the insulation failing could immediately give someone a shock because
    there is no protective earthing or supplementary insulation, then a
    larger creepage distance is required.

    The exact distances required in different standards tend to be
    different, though I think a lot of different products that used to be
    subject to different standards have recently been grouped into one set
    of standards, IEC62368-1.

    There are some tables here:
    https://www.powerctc.com/en/node/4757

    I think you are going to come up with something like 2.5mm for basic
    insulation and 5mm for reinforced, but you should check carefully what
    the standards say, and for some classes of equipment it can be much
    more, like 6mm or 8mm.

    I’d also want to consider if the pcb tracks are naked or covered with solder mask or conformal coating .

    This photo shows the underside of a two phase HVAC PCB:

    <https://crcomp.net/misc/hvac.png>

    This particular PCB's pulled from the Heating and Air Conditioning unit
    from one motel room in a chain franchise. It's found, one PCB per room,
    in motels and hotels throughout America. In other words, it's acceptable
    to appropriate authorities.

    If you look at the dark defect near the left edge you can see part of
    the conformal coating melted away.

    Relays are located at near the bottom of the PCB. The larger gaps
    measure about 3mm and separate phase voltages from each other. The
    smaller gap measures about 2mm and separates one phase voltage from
    neutral.

    Long story short, your 3mm separation seems adequate, IMHO.

    Danke,

    --
    Don, KB7RPU, https://www.qsl.net/kb7rpu
    There was a young lady named Bright Whose speed was far faster than light;
    She set out one day In a relative way And returned on the previous night.

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  • From john larkin@21:1/5 to lugnut808@spam.yahoo.com on Thu Oct 3 11:03:39 2024
    On Thu, 3 Oct 2024 22:05:37 +1000, Chris Jones
    <lugnut808@spam.yahoo.com> wrote:

    On 3/10/2024 8:11 pm, Pimpom wrote:
    What's the minimum surface clearance you consider adequate for 230VAC,
    on FR4 without slots or added creepage? Forget about IPC-2221 unless you
    base your layout strictly on it.

    Personally, I try to maintain 3mm edge-to-edge between tracks and pads,
    more if space permits. What do you think?

    The distance along a surface is called creepage in the standards.

    The required distance depends on whether the insulation is supposed to
    be single insulation (functional, basic or supplementary) or double >insulation (reinforced insulation).

    Basically, if the insulation failing ought not to kill someone because
    the part that would become live is either protectively earthed or
    separated by supplementary insulation from the user, then a smaller
    creepage is allowable.

    If the insulation failing could immediately give someone a shock because >there is no protective earthing or supplementary insulation, then a
    larger creepage distance is required.

    The exact distances required in different standards tend to be
    different, though I think a lot of different products that used to be
    subject to different standards have recently been grouped into one set
    of standards, IEC62368-1.

    There are some tables here:
    https://www.powerctc.com/en/node/4757

    I think you are going to come up with something like 2.5mm for basic >insulation and 5mm for reinforced, but you should check carefully what
    the standards say, and for some classes of equipment it can be much
    more, like 6mm or 8mm.



    What about voltage clearances for inner-layer traces on a multilayer
    board? Same layer and between layers?

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  • From Arie de Muijnck@21:1/5 to john larkin on Thu Oct 3 22:35:48 2024
    On 2024-10-03 20:03, john larkin wrote:
    On Thu, 3 Oct 2024 22:05:37 +1000, Chris Jones
    <lugnut808@spam.yahoo.com> wrote:

    On 3/10/2024 8:11 pm, Pimpom wrote:
    What's the minimum surface clearance you consider adequate for 230VAC,
    on FR4 without slots or added creepage? Forget about IPC-2221 unless you >>> base your layout strictly on it.

    Personally, I try to maintain 3mm edge-to-edge between tracks and pads,
    more if space permits. What do you think?

    The distance along a surface is called creepage in the standards.

    The required distance depends on whether the insulation is supposed to
    be single insulation (functional, basic or supplementary) or double
    insulation (reinforced insulation).

    Basically, if the insulation failing ought not to kill someone because
    the part that would become live is either protectively earthed or
    separated by supplementary insulation from the user, then a smaller
    creepage is allowable.

    If the insulation failing could immediately give someone a shock because
    there is no protective earthing or supplementary insulation, then a
    larger creepage distance is required.

    The exact distances required in different standards tend to be
    different, though I think a lot of different products that used to be
    subject to different standards have recently been grouped into one set
    of standards, IEC62368-1.

    There are some tables here:
    https://www.powerctc.com/en/node/4757

    I think you are going to come up with something like 2.5mm for basic
    insulation and 5mm for reinforced, but you should check carefully what
    the standards say, and for some classes of equipment it can be much
    more, like 6mm or 8mm.



    What about voltage clearances for inner-layer traces on a multilayer
    board? Same layer and between layers?




    See e.g. the IPC 2221 standard, clearance chapter 6.3 and table 6.1,
    at https://www-eng.lbl.gov/~shuman/NEXT/CURRENT_DESIGN/TP/MATERIALS/IPC-2221A(L).pdf
    or see e.g. https://philipmcgaw.com/creepage-and-clearance/

    There are also a lot of EU and UK standards that have detailed descriptions (and are mandatory for anything sold in the EU).
    Even hobby magazines carried tables for some time, but removed them for juridical reasons...

    Arie

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  • From Klaus Vestergaard Kragelund@21:1/5 to john larkin on Fri Oct 4 00:22:03 2024
    On 03-10-2024 20:03, john larkin wrote:
    On Thu, 3 Oct 2024 22:05:37 +1000, Chris Jones
    <lugnut808@spam.yahoo.com> wrote:

    On 3/10/2024 8:11 pm, Pimpom wrote:
    What's the minimum surface clearance you consider adequate for 230VAC,
    on FR4 without slots or added creepage? Forget about IPC-2221 unless you >>> base your layout strictly on it.

    Personally, I try to maintain 3mm edge-to-edge between tracks and pads,
    more if space permits. What do you think?

    The distance along a surface is called creepage in the standards.

    The required distance depends on whether the insulation is supposed to
    be single insulation (functional, basic or supplementary) or double
    insulation (reinforced insulation).

    Basically, if the insulation failing ought not to kill someone because
    the part that would become live is either protectively earthed or
    separated by supplementary insulation from the user, then a smaller
    creepage is allowable.

    If the insulation failing could immediately give someone a shock because
    there is no protective earthing or supplementary insulation, then a
    larger creepage distance is required.

    The exact distances required in different standards tend to be
    different, though I think a lot of different products that used to be
    subject to different standards have recently been grouped into one set
    of standards, IEC62368-1.

    There are some tables here:
    https://www.powerctc.com/en/node/4757

    I think you are going to come up with something like 2.5mm for basic
    insulation and 5mm for reinforced, but you should check carefully what
    the standards say, and for some classes of equipment it can be much
    more, like 6mm or 8mm.



    What about voltage clearances for inner-layer traces on a multilayer
    board? Same layer and between layers?



    Typical inner layers in x-y direction is 1.2mm for reinforced. If you do impulse voltage testing, you may get that down to 0.5mm

    In the z direction, it's 0.4mm IIRC

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  • From Klaus Vestergaard Kragelund@21:1/5 to Chris Jones on Fri Oct 4 00:15:57 2024
    On 03-10-2024 14:05, Chris Jones wrote:
    On 3/10/2024 8:11 pm, Pimpom wrote:
    What's the minimum surface clearance you consider adequate for 230VAC,
    on FR4 without slots or added creepage? Forget about IPC-2221 unless
    you base your layout strictly on it.

    Personally, I try to maintain 3mm edge-to-edge between tracks and
    pads, more if space permits. What do you think?

    The distance along a surface is called creepage in the standards.

    The required distance depends on whether the insulation is supposed to
    be single insulation (functional, basic or supplementary) or double insulation (reinforced insulation).

    Basically, if the insulation failing ought not to kill someone because
    the part that would become live is either protectively earthed or
    separated by supplementary insulation from the user, then a smaller
    creepage is allowable.

    If the insulation failing could immediately give someone a shock because there is no protective earthing or supplementary insulation, then a
    larger creepage distance is required.

    The exact distances required in different standards tend to be
    different, though I think a lot of different products that used to be
    subject to different standards have recently been grouped into one set
    of standards, IEC62368-1.

    There are some tables here:
    https://www.powerctc.com/en/node/4757

    I think you are going to come up with something like 2.5mm for basic insulation and 5mm for reinforced, but you should check carefully what
    the standards say, and for some classes of equipment it can be much
    more, like 6mm or 8mm.



    For <230V working voltage supplied ac equipment 3mm Basic insulation and
    5mm reinforced is typical. Notice that often clearance is larger
    distance than creepage. Creepage is also easier to handle, since you can
    add slots. You can't do that for clearance

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