The "CE" is a European "mark" on products promulgated by various European Directives. "CB" is not a "mark." The CB Scheme started as "a gentlemen's agreement" between various safety labs (not all necessarily in Europe) to accept each other's test results provided the labs abided by specified test procedures and practices. The CB Scheme now is under the IEC umbrella and has stringent requirements for joining this "scheme". By having a product evaluated under the CB Scheme allows the manufacturer to have this product be eligible for marking by individual agencies/labs who are members of the CB Scheme; i.e.: the agency reviews the CB Report and Certificate and may authorize the manufacturer to affix their safety mark. May or may not;-- if not satisfied with certain test results, the CB member agency can request the manufacturer to re-test those parameters at their lab. In practice, I believe, this seldom happens. The CB Scheme is invaluable for shipments outside European countries since many countries are members and will accept CB Reports without question. And there are other countries who cannot issue CB Reports but will accept such from other CB member countries,-- Slovenia, for example, where the Bush-Putin meetings are supposed to take place shortly. My suggestion is to have your third-party safety test lab/agency (who is also a CB Scheme member) evaluate and test your product to harmonized IEC/EN standards, and to all country deviations (or pick the ones you need). Be sure that both versions of IEC and the EN are referenced on the test report and the Certificate. (South Africa will accept IEC 60950, but not EN 60950, for example.) Now you have a proper test report that you can use to apply the CE mark, and you also have a test report that will get you into countries world-wide. (Except those bureaucracies that still think they can milk money by requiring that you test with them in their own country.) And they are usually correct;-- you pay them the money if you want to sell in that country!
As George Alspaugh suggested, check out www.cbscheme.org [email protected] ----- Original Message ----- From: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2001 3:17 PM To: Brian O'Connell Cc: '[email protected]'; [email protected] Subject: RE: CE or CB ? >TUV has single-day seminars addressing requirements of the 'CE' mark. Both UL and TUV can do the CD "dance." We at TUV decidedly do not dance... :-) ---[From the computer of...]----------------------------------------- Mr. Frank West Sr. Engineer TUV Rheinland 7853 SW Cirrus Dr. Beaverton, OR. 97008 T 503-469-8880 Ext 205 F 503-469-8881 [email protected] "Brian O'Connell" <[email protected]> To: "'[email protected]'" <[email protected]> Sent by: cc: owner-emc-pstc@majordom Subject: RE: CE or CB ? o.ieee.org 06/07/2001 11:38 AM Please respond to "Brian O'Connell" Requirements for the 'CE' mark are typically determined by Directives published as an "Official Journal" (OJ) of the European Union. The directive you seem to be referring to is the EMC Directive (89/336/EEC). This & other directives are available online. TUV has single-day seminars addressing requirements of the 'CE' mark. Both UL and TUV can do the CD "dance." -----Original Message----- From: Dan Pierce [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2001 6:31 AM To: '[email protected]' Cc: '[email protected]'; '[email protected]' Subject: CE or CB ? I am in the process of introducing product into the EU and possibly world wide. I was shown that the CB mark testing covers all the countries in the EU that we plan to sell to and other countries as well. Is this a new mark? Would I be better off getting the CE mark and then test to other countries applicable standards or the CB mark? The test facility that provided me with the information was Intertek Testing Services, in California USA. I planned to test to: EN55013 EN55020 TBR21 61000-3-2 61000-3-3 ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: [email protected] with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Michael Garretson: [email protected] Dave Heald [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: [email protected] Jim Bacher: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.rcic.com/ click on "Virtual Conference Hall,"
