KRIWAN implements the new EN60335 standard for its refrigeration compressors

Compliance with the new EN60335 standard will become mandatory in Europe in July 2007. The new standard expands the requirements to protection devices for refrigeration compressors. In the near future - 2009 at the very latest - UL will adopt the standard unchanged.

Today, KRIWAN is the only vendor to offer a solution that meets the new, substantially higher requirements for protective devices. However, the solution does not stop at fulfilling the requirements. It has also been approved by the VDE, the German association of electrical engineers. A patent is pending.

The expanded requirements to functional safety that are stipulated in the standard are determined in a risk analysis and rated in levels from 1 to 4. As confirmed by the VDE, the KRIWAN solution complies with level 3.

The new standard also imposes expanded, more exacting requirements to programming policies and internal software checks, to the µC architecture used, to materials (housing and components), as well as to electromagnetic compatibility and insulation.

Another requirement is the locked-rotor testing of compressors in extreme operating conditions. Requirements for protective devices have been expanded in this area, too, and they were actively incorporated into the new KRIWAN solution.

The new, VDE-approved approach combines sensors and motor protection. The sensor is manufactured from compliant materials according to a design agreed upon with the VDE. It is tested 100% for a variety of criteria. This more demanding specification enables EN60335-compliant monitoring of compressors using only a single sensor, the KRIWAN Safety Sensor, without the need for a secondary, redundant unit.

The key benefit of the KRIWAN's EN60335 solution is that it guarantees full compressor protection, achieving redundancy of the electronic system itself. Additional, external compressor monitors such as overcurrent relays are therefore unnecessary.