While it is true that many manufacturers' drives bear the CE mark and they are claiming compliance to the EMC directive, the way that the drive manufacturers claim compliance to the directives is in a "representative" computer system. Normally, they use some sort of host computer system that is right out of the box, but I have seen some of the test setups and you can tell pretty easily that some of these are highly modified computer systems which exist only for the purpose of getting a drive through EMC testing. This sort of thing is getting less commonplace, but some of the drive manufacturers are still using this practice on their really noisy drives. As the drive companies get more familiar with the EMC standards and the nuances of their particular designs, their drives are becoming more and more quiet.
Of course, the onus of compliance is on the final system manufacturer or integrator. Your PC or disk drive subsystem (or whatever it is in which you are going to be integrating a drive) must be robust enough to ensure that the drive you are choosing will pass well within the limits for the class of operating environment in which your equipment is designed to run. Steve Chin Compliance Engineer StreamLogic Corp. Menlo Park, CA, USA [email protected] Grasso, Charles (Chaz) ([email protected]) wrote: >Chris, > >This e-mail raises an important point. Hard drives (such as those slated >for PCs) are NOT regarded as a component in the EU rules. In order to test >the applicability of the EMC directive some questions need to be applied. > > 1. What is the "end use"? > 2. Is the product intended for to be marketed individually for >distribution? > 3. Does it perform a "direct function"? Refer to the Guidelines for a >definition of direct function. > >The hard drive (for PCs anyway) fullfills all the above requirements and as >such has to be CE marked. > >Also in the Jan 1995 Guidelines Section 4.7.3.2 lists PC disk readers as a >component performing a direct function and indicates that they fall within >the scope of the EMC Directive. > >Contact Seagate, Quantum or Maxtor. All these manufacturers CE mark their >drives. >Charles Grasso >EMC Engineer >StorageTek >Tel:(303)673-2908 >Fax(303)661-7115 > >
