Comparative Tracking Index

The Comparative Tracking Index or CTI is used to

measure the electrical breakdown (tracking) properties of
an insulating material. To measure the tracking, 50 drops
of 0.1% ammonium chloride solution are dropped on the
material, and the voltage measured for a 3 mm thickness
is considered representative of the material performance.
Also term PTI (Proof Tracking Index) is used: it means
voltage at which during testing on ve samples the samples pass the test with no failures.
Tracking is an electrical breakdown on the surface of an
insulating material. A large voltage dierence gradually
creates a conductive leakage path across the surface of the
material by forming a carbonized track. Testing method
is specied in IEC standard 60112.
Performance Level Categories (PLC) were introduced to
avoid excessive implied precision and bias.
The CTI value is used for electrical safety assessment
of electrical apparatus, as for instance carried out by
Underwriters Laboratory in USA and many other laboratories in the world. The minimum required creepage
distances over an insulating material between electrically
conducting parts in apparatus, especially between parts
with a high voltage and parts that can be touched by human users, is dependent on the insulators CTI value. Also
for internal distances in an apparatus by maintaining CTI
based distances, the risk of re is reduced.
In design of medical products, the CTI is treated dierently. Material groups are classied as shown below, per
IEC 60601-1:2005, International Standard published by
the International Electrotechnical Commission:

Link
Underwriters Laboratory denition of CTI
IEC 60601-1:2005 Medical electrical equipment Part 1: General requirements for basic safety and
essential performance

2 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

2.1

Text

Comparative Tracking Index Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_Tracking_Index?oldid=711840716 Contributors: Micru, Aulis Eskola, CJLL Wright, Gerben49~enwiki, SmackBot, Thijs!bot, Escarbot, Mahogny, Edgepedia, Addbot, Fieldday-sunday,
Yobot, Xqbot, ClueBot NG, BG19bot, ChrisGualtieri and Anonymous: 11

2.2

Images

File:Question_book-new.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/Question_book-new.svg License: Cc-by-sa-3.0

Contributors:
Created from scratch in Adobe Illustrator. Based on Image:Question book.png created by User:Equazcion Original artist:
Tkgd2007

2.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0