ISO 19642-2:2023

Overview

ISO 19642-2:2023 - Road vehicles - Automotive cables - Part 2: Test methods defines standardized test methods for electrical cables used in road vehicles. It provides the measurement, electrical, mechanical and environmental test procedures referenced by other parts of the ISO 19642 series, enabling consistent verification of cable performance for automotive applications.

Key topics and technical requirements

The standard is organized into normative test procedures and supporting information. Major technical areas include:

• General provisions

  • Test conditions, safety, ovens, specimen preparation, and normative references.
  • Terms, definitions and specification requirements used throughout the test methods.

• Single-core cable tests

  • Dimensional: outside diameter, insulation thickness, conductor diameter, cross-sectional area (CSA), in-process diameter.
  • Electrical: conductor resistance, temperature-coefficient determination, withstand voltage (including after environmental exposure), insulation faults, insulation volume resistivity.
  • Mechanical: strip force, abrasion, breaking force, cyclic bending, flexibility.
  • Environmental: long-term heat ageing (3 000 h at rated temperature), short-term heat ageing (240 h at rated temperature +25 °C), thermal overload (6 h at rated temperature +50 °C), high-temperature pressure tests, heat shrinkage, low-temperature winding, cold impact, temperature/humidity cycling, resistance to hot water and liquid chemicals, marking durability, stress cracking, ozone and flame propagation resistance.

• Sheathed and multi-conductor cable tests

  • Dimensional: cable diameter, sheath ovality and thickness, lay length, in-process diameter.
  • Electrical: continuity, final inspection withstand voltage, screening effectiveness, sheath faults, low-frequency tests (resistance unbalance, capacitance, inductance) and high-frequency/RF tests (velocity of propagation, characteristic impedance in frequency/time domains, insertion loss, return loss, NEXT/FEXT, alien crosstalk measures).
  • Mechanical and environmental tests tailored for screened, sheathed and RF cables (dynamic/cyclic bending, minimum bend radius, sheath/screen strip force, abrasion, artificial weathering).

• Annexes

  • Informative and normative annexes with examples of materials and suppliers, flexibility test apparatus, flame test apparatus, and guidance on concentricity and related factors.

Practical applications and users

This part of ISO 19642 is intended for:

• Automotive OEMs and wiring-harness designers for cable specification and validation.
• Cable manufacturers and suppliers for product development and factory testing.
• Independent test laboratories performing compliance and qualification tests.
• Quality/assurance, procurement and R&D teams assessing material selection, lifetime performance, electrical and RF characteristics, and environmental durability.

Keywords: ISO 19642-2, automotive cables test methods, road vehicles cable testing, cable electrical tests, mechanical and environmental cable tests, RF cable testing, cable qualification.