No. Paul, there are none. There are no exceptions in the EMC directive or the low voltage directive for beta testing and no way of getting around the regulations by any label of non-conformance. In the EMC directive any relevant apparatus "placed on the market" or "taken into service" must meet the regulations and have a CE mark and Declaration of Conformity. The guidelines issued by the commission show that both terms have a wide interpretation. "An apparatus covered by the EMC directive is put into service when it is first used [in the EEA territory]" Placing on the market is "first making available, against payment or free of charge, ... for the purpose of distribution and/or use in the EEA" "Making available" means " ... transfer of ownership or physical hand-over ... to the final customer or user in a commercial transaction ... (sale, loan hire, leasing, gift or any other type of commercial legal instrument)" The Commission's guidelines state that placing the product on the market does not concern " the display of the product at trade fairs and exhibitions It may not be in full conformity with the provision of the EMC directive, but this fact must be clearly advertised next to the apparatus being exhibited" Note this exception concerns only placing on the market not taking into service and does not even mention switching it on and has no mention of going to a customer's site An anomaly here is the UK implementation of the directive. Since the directives by themselves do not have direct force of law anywhere they need to be implemented into national law in each Community State. In countries like France and Germany the EMC directive is transcribed almost verbatim into the national law In the UK a fairly liberal interpretation of the directive is used. In the UK 1992 Electromagnetic Compatibility Regulations SI 1992 No. 2372 the term "supply" is used instead of "place on the market." The question of trade fairs and exhibitions, not mentioned in the directive and therefore not in the French and German laws is written directly into the UK law. "supply" is defined as "first making available of relevant apparatus for a consumer in the Community including, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, offering to supply, agreeing to supply, exposing for supply and possessing for supply such apparatus ... provided however that relevant apparatus shall not be regarded as having been supplied by reason only of its having been displayed at a trade fair or exhibition ..." This is not too different from the directive as elaborated by the Commission but the point at which the UK law strays significantly from the Directive and the Commission guidelines is in the question of taking into service. In clause 6 of the UK regulations it says "... relevant apparatus shall not be regarded as having been taken into service by reason only of its having been operated by or on behalf of the manufacturer at a trade fair or exhibition or by a supplier for demonstration purposes" This last phrase would seem to clear the way in the UK for a sales rep to take a non-compliant demonstration model around to customers sites and demonstrating how it works. However I would say that any beta test in the form of a trial to see how it performs under field conditions would exceed the most generous interpretation of UK law irrespective of whether a company representative is present and would be way outside the law in most of the rest of the Community where first use implies taking into service.
The Low Voltage directive is even tougher. There is no trade fairs and exhibitions clause. If the equipment is switched on by the customer or your sales rep it must be electrically safe and be CE marked for the Low voltage directive Regards Nick Rouse ----- Original Message ----- From: "O'Shaughnessy, Paul" <[email protected]> To: "'Lou Guerin'" <[email protected]>; "EMC-PSTC" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2001 10:40 PM Subject: RE: Beta Shipments > > > Can anyone direct me to the EC rules which govern beta site installations? > > For example, what if a contract is signed with the beta site, specifying > that the unit is not yet evaluated, and specifying terms of beta testing and > timeframe. Would that qualify as "under the control of the manufacturer"? > Having your own people run the thing, even at a remote site, rather defeats > the intention of a beta test, and it's a bit hard to believe that this is > how it's really done. > > Thanks, > > Paul O'Shaughnessy > Affymetrix, Inc. > > Lou Guerin wrote: > > "For Europe you have less leeway, you can show the product at a trade show > with a PROMINENT label declaring that the product has not been evaluated for > compliance to the appropriate LVD and EMC directives. The directives > prohibit the "placing on the market" or "putting into service" any product > that does not conform to the directives. This only allows you to demonstrate > the product at the customer's site if it is always under the control of the > manufacturer. For a Beta unit, you would need to send one of your people to > operate the equipment until it is returned to your factory or you get > approvals on that configuration." > > ------------------------------------------- > This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety > Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. > > To cancel your subscription, send mail to: > [email protected] > with the single line: > unsubscribe emc-pstc > > For help, send mail to the list administrators: > Jim Bacher: [email protected] > Michael Garretson: [email protected] > > For policy questions, send mail to: > Richard Nute: [email protected] > > ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to: [email protected] with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Jim Bacher: [email protected] Michael Garretson: [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: [email protected]
