New clamp meters from Agilent

Agilent also announced an updated range of handheld instruments clad in vivid orange to promote user safety.

The bright colour provides greater visibility and is in line with conventional colour coding that indicates 'caution' in typical industrial settings.

Providing greater safety protection for engineers and technicians working with high voltages and currents, the Agilent U1240B and U1250B series digital multimeters (DMMs) and U1210A clamp meters carry CAT III 1000 V, CAT IV 600 V safety ratings.

The DMMs are certified to IEC 61010 and CSA standards and have passed additional high-voltage ('hipot') tests that exceed the standards.

In addition, Agilent's handheld DMMs and U1210A clamp meters include 4-mm-tip probes.

The reduction in the length of the exposed tip is especially important in CAT IV environments, and the additional insulation further prevents dangerous arc flash if the tips are inadvertently shorted together during probing.

The U1240B and U1250B DMMs also include a 30 kA high-energy fuse to further protect the user against violent fuse failures during high-current measurements.