Beware The Pitfalls Of Power Suppy Hipot Testing

by Kevin Parmenter, Chair, and James Spangler, Co-chair, PSMA Safety and Compliance Committee , How2Power Today, May 16 2018

Focus:
A dielectric withstanding voltage test—commonly referred to as a hipot test—determines the ability of equipment with an installed power supply to protect against electrical shock. However, for switching power supplies, the hipot test should be considered a destructive test. This article explains why that’s the case and how power supply users can avoid damaging power supplies through improper application of hipot tests. The key issue here is that hi-pot testing is meant to test creepage and clearance, yet it also stresses components such as the safety capacitors. The repetition of hipot testing by different parties in the supply chain can ultimately damage the safety capacitors, leading to unnecessary and destructive hipot test failures. This article discusses these problems and offers guidelines (such as the use of dc high pot) for avoiding these failures.

What you’ll learn:

• How to avoid damaging power supplies through overuse of hipot testing

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