I am sure if you contact the manufacturers and ASTA they will be able to inform you better than I,
No - they will just give me a different pile of waffle.
The manufacturers generally specify that their boards have been tested to certain standards as are the components within them and for safety reasons they recommend these are the products that should be installed within them.
Of course they do. But....
They do not recommended other makes/brands of components to be used, as they have not been specifically tested for their boards,
That is true. But....
I would not expect manufacturers to go testing all other manufacturers products to assure they do meet their requirements,
Nor I. But please try to exercise common sense and reality over what those "requirements" can really be.
you mAy say they are looking after their own financial interests but surely it would be up to the manufacturers of the internal components to prove reliability and safety, to install these in foreign boards not visa a versa.
And here's the "But...":
The breakers
all conform to the same standards for performance. Within different makes of similar standing they are
all going to be of similar quality and safety and reliability.
Using all your skill and judgement, please explain, to the best of your knowledge and belief, what problems there could be with putting Breaker A in "foreign" enclosure "B" (apart from, as previously said, issues of busbar alignment).
If you have an enclosure, with a DIN standard rail, please tell us what problems you think there could possibly be if breakers from two makers were clamped onto that rail.
If I were panel building, would every maker of devices insist that I had to buy every device and enclosure I needed from him? Or would it be OK for me to buy an enclosure from Sarel, breakers from Hager, contactors from Telemecanique, and distribution blocks from Aico?
In my opinion installing mixed breakers is a no no, so I don't.
By what is that opinion informed?
That does not say that they cannot be mixed providing, as I have stated they are type tested for the board
What does that mean? What does "type testing" consist of?
and the meet the EN/BS specification for the board,
What are those specifications? Apart from the ones for the profile of the rail, the distance between it and the front panel, and the aperture in that panel, what other relevant ones are there for "the board"?
so if Siemens devices have been type tested and meet spec for a Hager board they would be no safety issues, if they have not there is a potential that there could be.
The potential for what safety issues? Can you suggest any reasonably likely ones? Any possible ones? Even any ridiculously unlikely ones?
No maker is going to test or approve the use of other makes of breaker in his CU, if only for the reason of busbar alignments, but it's perfectly fair for him to say "why should I?" for commercial reasons. And the lack of type testing does have a real consequence as without it you lose the exemption from having breakers rated for your PFC.
But safety?
I would not fit a set of brakes to my car, that were not designed or met the specification of it!
I hope you aren't daft enough to think that that is a good analogy, or to think that others would.