Power devices

Safety regulations have been in place for decades in the power industry and as we know only too well, have been through lots of revisions. And although each revision has made them more stringent and tailored to our businesses, frustratingly we have become familiar with designing products to conform to latest versions. So why do safety authorities change things that have been in place for so many years?
This is a question we hear so many times from power designers and without knowing the history and background it would be difficult to understand the motivation for IEC/EN 62368-1. Indeed, the transition from a well-established 1952 standard to something fundamentally different requires some explanation, which this article is about.