A few days ago, South Korea issued the G/TBT/N/KOR/408 bulletin (the draft standard for fluorescent lamp replacement LED lamps (K 10025)). The draft covers safety standards for LED lamps that can replace straight, townline and ring fluorescent lamps. It also specifies safety and functional requirements, temperature limits and compatibility requirements. Once this standard is introduced, it may export related products to Korea. Significant impact.
According to reports, this draft standard deals with the safety standards for LED lamps that can replace straight tube, townhouse and ring fluorescent lamps. The standard draft also specifies the safety and functional requirements of fluorescent lamp replacement LED lamps. Safety requirements include insulation resistance, dielectric strength, creepage distance, clearance, heat resistance and flame resistance. Performance requirements include luminous flux, color temperature and point/deactivation. Life expectancy, etc.
Experts suggest that the draft standard will increase the cost of living for LED luminaires. G/TBT/N/KOR/408 clearly mentions that the safety requirements for insulation resistance, insulation strength, creepage distance, clearance, heat resistance and flame resistance are specified in the draft standard. The requirements are based on the current applicable IEC standards. But in fact, in the draft standard, the safety index requirements are greatly improved on the basis of the IEC standard and the JEL standard in terms of "weight of the lamp", "deformation of the lamp", and "temperature rise". These requirements place extremely high demands on the materials of the luminaires, which will greatly increase the production cost of the luminaires.
The new standard will also create unnecessary trade barriers. The draft standard specifies the color of the lamp cover at both ends of the LED lamp as white, but in fact, the color of the lamp cover at both ends of the LED lamp is not necessarily related to the safety of the product. These design features that do not involve safety and performance should be bought and sold. Both parties stipulate their own sales contracts or manufacturers to design according to the preferences of consumers in the target market. If they are included in public standards, they will easily lead to unnecessary trade barriers.
In addition, LED companies report that because the various provisions of the standard are quite different from the internationally accepted International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards, if the standard is released and implemented, the company must redesign the product, and the production cost of the Korean product will be significantly increased. Enhancing and weakening the competitiveness of products in the Korean market has put tremendous pressure on companies to work in the Korean market.
July 31, 2023
