EMC Compliance

[Magnus Danielson]

From: "Forbes, William - EE - UK/Leamington" <william.forbes at luk-asg.com>
Subject: RE: EMC Compliance
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 13:09:49 -0000

> The CE marking requirements are for any product sold in any
> country in the European Union. It is a legal requirement that
> all products are CE marked before that can be sold.
> 
> By marking a product with a CE mark, you are declaring that
> the product is electrically safe (complies with requirements),
> does not generate EMI and will operate safely (or not operate
> but remains safe) under EMC conditions.
> 
> The CE mark is applied by the manufacturer (some products
> have to be independently assessed, but I don't think this
> will worry you).

Right.

Please note that there are a number of EC laws which apply for
diffrent sides of CE marking. Some relate to toys etc. You have to
check these and their related set of standards to see if they
apply. Fortunately, all these laws and lists of standards is available
openly on the web. The standards you would have to buy (except for
those from ETSI which is free).

> The manufacturer of a product (or the person/distributor
> who brings the product into the EU) has to keep a technical
> file on the product, so that proof can be shown that the
> necessary legal requirements have been met. The authorities
> can request this information at any time.
> 
> The odds of being asked to supply details are relatively
> small as there are very few enforcement officers (at least
> in the UK).
> 
> So to summarise, you must apply a CE mark to any product
> that you wish to use in the EU. If your product is runs on
> low voltage, does not generate interference and remains safe
> with EMC, then you should be safe to apply the CE mark to
> your product. You may be called upon to prove the above.

Actually, they have moved the voltage limit down on electrical safety
now. It used to be quite high levels before the electrical safety law
started to apply.

For most electronics, the power and EMC issues are the only ones in
need for checking, the trick is only to find according to which standard.

Cheers,
Magnus