Folks, Having now communicated with UL and others on this matter, I understand that there is no agreement between UL and their European counterparts that all LEDs are Class 1 (which is what I infer from the comment below). Even if such an agreement been in existence, its significance for companies wishing to use compliance with Harmonised Standards to support their declaration of conformity with the LVD or R&TTED would be highly questionable.
However, it seems that UL do not (in general - it's impracticable to make a categorical statement about such large organisations) mention those LEDs that are of the surface-emitting type (known as SLEDs) in their reports. However, not all LEDs are of this type and so the generalised statement is inaccurate. For further information about the safety of SLEDs and some other types of semiconductor optical emitter you may be interested in the statement published by the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP): http://www.icnirp.de/documents/led.pdf UL's stance on the safety of SLEDs can be seen to be in line with this statement by the international body on non-ionising radiation. Note also that IEC 60825-1, although mentioning in the Note to Clause 9.1 that single-fault condition testing is not needed for SLEDs, does not go as far as to say that all SLEDs are inherently Class 1. I hope that the above clarifies rather than confuses. My own opinions as always, Richard Hughes -----Original Message----- From: Warren Birmingham [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 11 October 2002 23:06 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: LED's and laser safety? Gary, I was recently in conversation with UL about LEDs whereas I am now being told that UL has convinced the European counterparts that LEDs are no longer considered Class I Lasers and the requirements for them to be tested as such has been dropped. UL no longer treats them that way in their CB Reports. Warren Birmingham Epsilon-Mu Consultants (510) 793-4806 email: [email protected] website: http://www.epsilon-mu.com On Thursday, Oct 10, 2002, at 08:53 US/Pacific, Gary McInturff wrote: > > IEC-825 has incorporated LED's into the safety standard but, from > what I can tell, left a great deal of confusion. > I typically deal with the 5 - 10 mcd devices and haven't been > required to provide any IEC-825 conformity proof for the Western > European test house. We may be jumping up to about 60 mcd and > non-focused devices and I don't know where the standard starts to > become concerned. I hate to buy the standard if it doesn't provide any > clarity for these types of parts. > Could you folks clue me in? > Gary > ------------------------------------------- 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"
