Will You Be Prepared When the European Union EMC Standards Change?

If you are marketing your product in the European Union (EU), undoubtedly you have heard of, tested to, and—for many—been frustrated by mandatory CE Marking requirements.

Today, customs officials in all member countries of the EU restrict any “movement of electrical/electronic goods” that do not bear the CE Marking. Not until you have shown that your product complies to all European Directives can you affix the CE Marking and sell your product to the European marketplace.

You need to set up internal monitoring procedures to continually verify that your product maintains conformity throughout its life span. A product could fall out of conformance if various redesigns, PCB re-layouts, or other changes have been implemented without consideration of previous CE testing.

But how do you monitor external factors that can be completely out of your control? These external factors are currently—and always will be—taking place because new or revised European EN standards are superseding earlier editions. Today, these factors are crucial if you market your product in the European Domestic (residential, commercial and light industrial) environment.

When you place the CE marking on your product, you are stating that the product meets all European Directives that apply to the product. The two most common are the 89/336/EEC EMC and the 73/23/EEC Low-Voltage Safety directives.

The EMC Directive has been in effect since January 1996, and the Low Voltage Directive became mandatory this year. Because these two directives apply to most electronic products being placed on the European market, you must conform to both in your Declaration of Conformity.

89/336/EEC EMC Directive

With the self-declaration process, you take full responsibility that the product is EMC compliant. No mandatory submittal to a European agency is required. Today the self-declaration route, using harmonized standards, is the most common approach you can use to show conformance.

When a standard appears in the Official Journal (OJ), it has been harmonized (approved) by the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) and given a number beginning with an EN prefix. The EN stands for European Norm, which indicates all member countries of the EU recognize this standard and will honor it as the norm throughout the European Union. Product and generic standards are two common EMC standards that appear in the OJ.

Product standards describe a product or product-family classification. Generic standards are categorized by the environment that the product will be marketed in: domestic or heavy industrial. If there is no product standard for your device, you are not considered exempt but rather would use generic standards by default.

Generic Standards

Four EMC generic standards are available depending on the EMC phenomena (emission or immunity) and environment (domestic or heavy industrial):

Domestic Environment

EN50081-1:1992 Generic Emission Standard—seldom used today.

EN50082-1:1992 Generic Immunity Standard—often used today.

Heavy Industrial Environment

EN50081-2:1994 Generic Emission Standard—seldom used today.

EN50082-2:1995 Generic Immunity Standard—often used today.

Risk of Change

However, EU requirements can change, and a new product standard can be released. Products previously tested to old standards must be updated before they can continue to be marketed.

For example, when the EN55104 Product Standard, the immunity requirement for household appliances and similar apparatus (HHA), was released, a 16-month transition period allowed previously tested products to continue to be marketed. After this time period, HHA products had to conform to the new product immunity standard before being sold.

EN50082-1 Generic Domestic Immunity Standard

Another risk of change is the revamping of current harmonized standards such as the Generic Domestic Immunity Standard. The proposed revision is considerably different from the original version. Some of the immunity tests have changed slightly, while others are being required for the first time. At this time, it appears this revision will be published in the OJ later this year.

Proposed Changes to EN50082-1

Table 1 compares the 1992 standard to the proposed changes. The number of immunity tests called out will almost triple. Some of the significant differences between the 1992 and the new version are:

The newer IEC 1000-4/EN61000-4 series will be used instead of the 801 series.

For ESD testing, contact discharge will be required along with air discharge.

Radiated immunity will have a new frequency range of 80 MHz to 1,000 MHz and will require 80% amplitude modulation at 1 kHz.

Additional immunity tests will be specified, including 900-MHz ±5-MHz pulse, lightning surge, RF conducted, 50-Hz magnetic-field, and voltage variation, dip, and interrupt.

Conclusion

If you must convert, discuss how this new regulation will affect your engineering and regulatory personnel and management. While there is time, look closely at these new revisions, make them a topic in meetings, perform tests to evaluate results, learn of modifications that are needed in current product lines, and begin incorporating these EMC revisions in your future products. The point is to eliminate last-minute headaches similar to ones experienced with the 1996 EMC Directive deadline.

About the Author

Stephen W. Grimes is an EMC sales and applications engineer at D.L.S. Electronic Systems. He has eight years experience in the field as an EMC test engineer and two years in sales and applications, and is a member of the IEEE EMC Society. Mr. Grimes has received a B.S.E.E.T. degree in electronic engineering technology from DeVry Institute of Technology. D.L.S. Electronic Systems, 1250 Peterson Dr., Wheeling, IL 60090, (847) 537-6400.

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Copyright 1997 Nelson Publishing Inc.

July 1997