Recently, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) published the international standard ‘Electrical Relays-Tests and Measurements-Part 3: Relay Coil Properties’. Chinese expert served as the project leader, working with experts from Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, and other countries to develop the standard. The standard establishes advanced and harmonized test methods that facilitate international trade of electrical relay products.

Electrical relays are fundamental components widely used in industrial control, power systems, household appliances, automobiles, telecommunications and other fields. Electromechanical elementary relays are the most widely used type of electrical relay. In an electromechanical elementary relay, the coil serves as the primary actuation element and the key energy-conversion element. It is a critical component that enables the relay to allow a low-power control signal to switch a higher-power circuit and to convert electrical control signals into mechanical action. Relay coil properties include a range of parameters, such as coil resistance, coil impedance, coil inductance, coil power consumption, and coil transient suppression. These properties are key characteristics for evaluating electromechanical elementary relays and directly determine the performance and reliability of electrical relays.

The publication of this standard harmonizes the test conditions and test procedures for electrical relay coil properties, addressing the lack of detail and practical usability in existing industry standards. It provides manufacturers, users, and testing organizations worldwide with a common technical basis for reproducible testing and comparable results. The standard will serve as an important reference for performance evaluation by manufacturers, users, and third-party testing organizations worldwide, and will be of significant value to industry standardization, product quality, and international trade.