On the 13th of June the last the International Standard Organization (ISO) has published the ISO 12716-2:2025 revision. This new version includes a lot of changes, and it seems not to be overstated to say that the new text is a little technical revolution.
The new text is clearer than the previous issue, and with less ambiguities making the reading and the interpretation easier even for who is approaching this document for the first time.
Here after there is a summary of the most important changes.
Because the ISO is an international standard that has to consider the existing differences among more than 140 countries, especially the legal ones related to the electrical safety, represented by the different required marking (i.e.: UL, CE, CSA, etc.), the technical part related to the safety has been taken out and a new annex with a list of applicable safety standard (IEC) has been drafted, leaving the responsibility for the correct choice in charge to the designer, that, in turn, he should consider the market where the equipment will be used and, as consequence, the applicable safety standard.
The standard is applicable without prejudice to the technology used, i.e.: high frequence pulse output (the so called: inverter type), transformer type (cutting phase), battery operated, etc. The method to verify and declare the Duty Cyle has been clearly specified and there no longer should be way for the manufacturers to interpret it and, to communicate it in different manner.
It has been clearly defined that the standard is not applicable to special control unit designed to operate with only one brand of fittings and finally it has been clearly defined that the control unit cannot operate in the way that is need without the cables for the feedback signal connected to the fittings’ terminal pins, in other words, the lead that brings power to the fittings must be composed by 4 cables: 2 of them dedicated to the feedback signal and the other 2 to supply the requested electrical power to the fitting being fused.
Another interesting change is in the “maintenance” program. The control unit manufacturer shall guarantee that the electrical output parameters shall remain stable at least for one year after the manufacturing but he has the possibility to lengthen or to shorter this period.
As last point we report in this article, we cannot skip the fact that the terrible nomenclature based on the not ready-to-readable code that was in the old standard (i.e.: P23UES2VADX) has been finally deleted and it has been substituted by a specified and mandatory series of information, in plain text, that the manufacturer shall provide to the market.
In conclusion, this new version of ISO 12176-2 is a standard that looks to the future and is open to the IoT, for this reason the control units have the chance to become a central point in the management of the work site, not only for the fusing of electrofusion fittings, but also for the collecting and transmission of data to the managers that want to control the site operations.