Brent, I passed your inquiry on to our power supply expert and asked for his opinion on the situation. This is what he had to say.
(Of course these are individual opinions only, not Hughes Network Systems) Gabriel Roy (33) Comments: Gabe :: I have couple of comments here. First of all, Korean manufacturer can only be given the file numbers of the CSA/UL overhere. If that does not satisfy them, than at least they should be in a position to name the agency where they are seeking such certification. The request no. 4 seem unreasonable to me out of my experiences with CSA/UL on power supply certification process. There are couple of ways to avoid this request. 1) Let them know - that, it would be in the best interest of manufacturer to furnish such information directly to the certifying agency in Korea. This is in line with managing/liaising future upgrades much efficiently. Also Manufacturer do not prefer to pass on the ongoing responsibility on their customers. This is in lieu of the liabilities and other issues involved on the manufacturer side. 2) If above decision endangers the business relations, than disclaimer and confidentiality agreement can be passed on to the customer. However, I would still be vary of meeting their request no. 4 specifically. Requests 1 to 3 - I have seen sometime as the norm in industry, provided customer has paid the development expenditure. But that too goes with confidentiality agreement. Hope, above would give you some insight on the topic - that is out of my experiences only. Bharat ------- Brent Taira wrote: -------- To all - Recently we have had a strange request from a Korean customer. We manufacture AC to DC Power Supplies and a Korean Customer indicated that he needed the following items in order to obtain Korean appoval on the AC to DC Power Supply (he would not tell us what approvals they needed...just something about Government Approval): 1. Schematic Diagram 2. Board Layouts 3. Bill of Materials 4. Two pieces each of every component...not just key components. This, coupled with the fact that one of their designers is making design suggestions, makes us a bit edgy. At this point, it is still obvious that the designer does not understand the operation of our unit, but to tell him that "no, the circuit does not work that way" means that you would have to explain the detailed operations of the unit. Can anyone tell me whether this request is on the up and up or whether we should keep the information close to home. What level of information do most end product manufacturers require of their component vendors? Thanks in advance for your input. Could you please respond to "[email protected]". We will be deciding what details of information to send to the customer tomorrow evening. Brent Taira
