Several of the countries you list will accept "CE" standards, or have identical internal standards. I can think of several areas of concern:
1. Even a "sealed" lead-acid battery can produce some amount of gas during charging. There are concerns raised in standards such as IEC 1010-1 and IEC 950 about buildup of explosive gasses. Your battery compartment will need to be at least slightly vented. Your charging system should be designed to prevent excessive heat generation (ususally due to extreme overcharging) in single-fault situations (current limiter failures, lead-acid cells shorting or going open, etc.). 2. If the battery can be replaced by the customer, then doing so must not create an unsafe condition. You must deal with the probability that a battery will be installed backwards (unless a mechanically robust system exists to prevent this). Your labelling should be explicit about what sort of battery can be used in the product (ie. use of different batteries may risk fire, etc.) 3. Disposal of lead-acid batteries is a growing concern. I would advise you to include a recycling triangle symbol with notice that the battery should not be disposed of with common trash, but recycled. I am not sure what exactly the legislation is in each of these countries, but I am sure it exists and will be getting tougher. 4. I would advise (for product safety and also on general principals) that you install an in-circuit current limiting device as close to the battery terminal as possible, to prevent high short circuit currents. The amount of current that one of these batteries can deliver is impressive, and the farther away such a device is, the higher the chance that something will cause a short circuit without including the current limiting device. 5. Another bit of advice - not regulatory, just advice - consult the battery manufacturer's literature closely for advice on charging. Repeated undercharging or overcharging of lead-acid batteries produces successive mismatching between the cells and results in early failure. The circuit need not be complex, but thought must be given here. 6. The AC/DC adapter itself should meet the IEC 1010-1 or IEC 950 or similar Product Safety requirements for these countries. The easiest way is to simply purchase something that is already so certified. I hope this helps. Paul O'Shaughnessy Affymetrix, Inc. -----Original Message----- From: Koh Nai Ghee [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, January 15, 2001 9:32 AM To: EMC-PSTC Subject: Battery Requirement Hi all, I was being asked a question regarding battery regulatory requirement for a portable analog amplifier speaker. This speaker has built in an internal chargeable battery. This battery is Lead Acid Battery. This speaker is being powered up, as well as battery charging, by an external AC/DC adaptor. The country of concern is as follows, Hong Kong Taiwan Japan Australia/New Zealand China. The EMI requirement are : Taiwan = BSMI, Australia/NZ = C-Tick, Japan =VCCI.. As I'm no expert on batteries, can anyone advice on the battery requirement for the above countries. Your reply is much appreciated. Regards Koh ------------------------------------------- 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]
