Rick, Jim, As System Integrators this apparent easing of standards is of great concern. Initially when the idea of the two environments was muted it seemed a good idea and destined to make my life a little easier. Just make sure the equipment is CE marked to the appropriate level, take any necessary precautions and there is a good chance that everything works all right (for EMC). Product specific standards were permitted to "cover problems associated with that family of equipments" i.e. adjacent channel rejection for TVs Interested trade Associations rushed off and started to raise product specific standards (in some cases totally unnecessarily as they were literally updates of the Generics with no apparent improvements). Others actually used them to relax the limits and some correctly (in my opinion) to cover areas not in the Generic standards. Also most associations opted for the lower Commercial/domestic limits rather continuing to give a choice of environment. After all, all they want is a CE mark, never mind what the user (customer?) wants. This situation is to become even more interesting as it is possible that more than one product specific standard may apply, one that covers the EN50082-1 levels and one that covers the EN50082-2 levels. A railway specific standard is to be published shortly, and has used the EN50082-2 levels with additional tests to cover known problem areas. So the question now is, using IT as an example. If an IT manufacturer contracts to supply CE marked equipment to a Railway operator which Product Specific Standard does he use? And if it goes to a Court of Law who would win? Also if CE marked to the lower levels but still works satisfactorily, i.e. it doesnt break the essential protection requirements of the Directive, does it matter and is there a case? Hopefully when the SLIM initiative starts looking into this total overkill on standards may be they will come back with some sensible solutions. In the mean time it is back to the good old contract rather than rely on the legislation.
Ray Garner Datel-Ferranti Group RCIC - http://www.rcic.com Regulatory Compliance Information Center --------- This message is coming from the emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to [email protected] with the single line: "unsubscribe emc-pstc" (without the quotes). For help, send mail to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected] (the list administrators).
