The EN 61010-1 standard specifies general safety requirements for electrical test and measuring equipment, including accessories. Electrical test and measuring equipment includes all devices that can check one or more physical quantities. Thus, the equipment can test, measure, display, or record the physical quantities. In addition, various non-measuring devices are covered by the EN 61010-1 standard. These are signal generators, measuring standards, power supplies for laboratory use and signal converters. In addition, the standard also applies to test equipment that is integrated into various manufacturing processes. 

The standard covers all electrical control and regulation devices that find their use in the context of industrial process control technology. An important characteristic of these devices is that they set one or more output variables to a specific value. This value cannot be chosen arbitrarily, but is predetermined either by manual settings or by local or remote programming. There are numerous electrical laboratory instruments that are used to examine substances or to assist in the examination of substances. They can also be used to prepare substances. These electrical laboratory devices can display, measure or control values. The safety requirements that must be met before these electrical laboratory devices can be used in practice are regulated in detail in the EN 61010-1 standard.