As far as I know, the EU has not adopted the insane FCC Class B compliance process. So there is NO procedure for marking a motherboard as a "compliant" unit.
What you can do is test it in a system (just like the old days) and mark the motherboard based on that test ALONE. If I understand your requirement, you are looking to adopt the infamous CE+CE=CE approach. Again, this has proven NOT to work especially for emissions. Comments: (a) there is no requirement to test "open chassis" and that we can CE mark the board as compliant as long as we have shown that it can meet the class B levels within a chassis of our choosing. RESPONSE: There is no requirement NOR is there a process for "open chassis" testing. The EMC Directive (nor the guidelines) can help you here. (b) we are still required to perform "open chassis" tests, however, there is no 6dB margin and the board will have to meet the EN 50022 class B levels with the cover off. RESPONSE: Nonsense. There is NO "open chassis" test. WARNING: Be careful. The next thing the testhouse will try is the TCF route. Ugh. Thank you Charles Grasso Advisory Engineer StorageTek 1 StorageTek Drive Louisville CO 80027 M/S 4247. Tel:303-673-2908 Fax:303-661-7115 email:[email protected] RMCEMC Web Site: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r5/denver/rockymountainemc/ -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 1999 2:44 PM To: [email protected] Subject: CE Marking requirements Well group, if you care to help out another American confused by the specific requirements for Europe, I would appreciate it. I seem to be getting varying stories from different test houses as to what is required for one of our products. These are big enough players that pitting one against another is not something I want to undertake at this point. We currently manufacture a motherboard which is sold both by itself and with a chassis which includes power supply, hard drive and floppy. We are currently going through our internal EMC validation to ensure that we meet both FCC Class B and EN 55022 Class B levels. Our experience on previous products has been if we clear emissions, we haven't had problems in other areas, but we'll be testing to EN 55024 of immunity, as well. The issue arises when we discuss testing of the system versus testing of the motherboard alone. Within the US, the FCC regulations permit an additional 6dB margin for "open chassis" measurement, so long as those frequencies fall back within the class B levels with the cover on. This does not appear to be a problem for our product. We have been told by different parties that for Europe, (a) there is no requirement to test "open chassis" and that we can CE mark the board as compliant as long as we have shown that it can meet the class B levels within a chassis of our choosing and (b) we are still required to perform "open chassis" tests, however, there is no 6dB margin and the board will have to meet the EN 50022 class B levels with the cover off. We're having a little more difficulty making things work using the (b) approach. I am specifically concerned about staying far enough below the levels that we're not going to potentially pass today and fail 6 months from now due to a slight drift in tolerances of components, test equipment or test engineers' dispositions. I have the texts of the EMC directive, as well as the test requirements specified in the above documents and I'm happy to wade through them if you can point me in the right direction. I will be heading that direction in the next day or two if I don't receive a response. I'm hoping, however, that someone in the group can shave a few hours of exceptionally captivating reading from my life by pointing me in the right direction. Regards, Michael Garretson Compliance Engineer RadiSys Corporation --------- 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). --------- 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).
