Scott, Peter is right. The LVD was never intended to cover components - it was originally written only for OEM products. In fact, the CE marking scheme is wholly inadequate as a means of ensuring any level of compliance at the component level. (Some of the EU Directives specifically prohibited component marking, but the EU was never able to adequately define "component", and prohibitions against marking components are largely ignored.) Due to OEM customer demands or for market reasons, many component manufacturers CE mark their products. Naturally, all their competitors are then required to do the same and the whole thing snowballs. Some claim compliance to the LVD, others to the EMC Directive, others to who-knows-what. I've seen "declarations of conformity" that don't claim compliance to anything at all. Bottom line is, if you're an OEM,specifiying a CE marked component buys you little, except maybe the false perception that the device has been tested or evaluated to some identifyable EU requirement. As the component manufacturer, I would choose the easiest route, assuming all my "real" design requirements in terms of safety or EMC were met. Greg Galluccio www.productapprovals.com ------------------------------------------- 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: Ron Pickard: [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://ieeepstc.mindcruiser.com/ Click on "browse" and then "emc-pstc mailing list"
