Which cable tray and ladder standards apply to your project? What standards are most commonly referenced in Vietnam? In this article, The Sun’s cable tray team walks through the cable tray and ladder standards most commonly applied in Vietnam. Note that export products sometimes require additional, customer-specific standards, which are outside the scope of this article.
Common Cable Tray and Ladder Standards
TCVN (Vietnam Standard): Issued by the Directorate for Standards, Metrology and Quality under Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology (website: tcvn.gov.vn). The standard covering cable trays and ladders is TCVN 10688: Cable management – Cable tray systems and cable ladder systems, which is equivalent to IEC 61537.
IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission): Widely regarded as the reference standard for the electrical industry; many national standards, including TCVN 10688 above, are in fact translations of IEC standards (website: iec.ch — note the correct domain, as a different organization holds the .com variant). The relevant standard is IEC 61537: Cable management – Cable tray systems and cable ladder systems. You can find more information and purchase the standard from the official IEC webstore.
NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association): A U.S. trade association (website: nema.org). The relevant standard is NEMA VE1: Metal Cable Tray Systems. NEMA also publishes an installation guideline, NEMA VE2: Cable Tray Installation Guidelines.
Related Standards
Beyond the core cable tray/ladder standards, there are separate standards covering corrosion resistance, fire risk, impact resistance, transport, packaging, coatings, and galvanizing — each with its own scope, and often varying by region. In practice, the two most relevant to buyers are usually the powder-coating thickness standard and the hot-dip galvanizing thickness standard.
Coating Thickness Standard
Coating thickness is measured according to TCVN 9760, equivalent to ISO 2808. Note that this standard defines the method for measuring coating thickness — it does not itself specify how thick a coating must be.
Hot-Dip Galvanizing Standard
Hot-dip galvanizing follows TCVN 5408, equivalent to ISO 1461, or alternatively ASTM A123. Galvanizing plants commonly apply ASTM A123, so hot-dip galvanized cable trays and ladders are often certified to this standard as well.
Standards frequently reference other related standards, and many of them run to several dozen pages each.
Summary: What Matters Most in Cable Tray and Ladder Standards?
Since cable tray and ladder systems are structural components that support and protect electrical cables, the standards governing them ultimately come down to a handful of key requirements:
- Load-bearing capacity of the tray/ladder itself
- Load-bearing capacity of the supporting structure (brackets, hangers, supports)
- Impact resistance
- Powder-coating thickness
- Hot-dip galvanizing thickness
- Zinc-coating thickness of galvanized steel sheet
For the official IEC standard text, see the IEC webstore.
