Todd, You are correct in your suggestion that the Manufacturer is better off meeting the new requirements to avoid the need to retest as the 2001 dow date approaches. However, in my opinion, this is only sound advice if the product has an expected market life beyond the EN50082-1 1992 DOW. (July 1, 2001)
In the ITE industry, you find that a product is lucky to have a market life longer than 6 months. If I were to test to the new generic standard, which would add considerable cost to my testing scheme, when the product will become obsolete in 10 months, way before the date of withdrawl of the 1992 standard, aren't I just throwing money away? It seems to me that testing to the new (1997) standard would only be prudent if you are expecting the product life to be 3 years or more. To me the bottom line is this: You do not have to meet the new requirements until the Old requirements are withdrawn - July 1, 2001. Any new products forcasted to be on the market after this date should be tested to the new standards. Otherwise, use the 1992 standard. Also consider this: If you perform the tests per the 1992 standard, but deviate your test plan to include the newer test procedures (IEC 1000-4-X series) for ESD/EFT/radiated Immunity, then when the DOW gets closer, you can go back and simply perform the additional testing later. This allows you more time to aquire test equipment and gear up for the additional testing. Am I reading this all wrong? I welcome any and all comments on this subject. Regards, Randy Flinders EMC Test Engineer Emulex Network Systems Corporation Phone: (714) 513-8012 Fax: (714) 513-8265 E-Mail: [email protected] WebSite: www.emulex.com * opinions expressed herein are personal, and in no way reflect the position of Emulex Corporation. ---------- From: Todd Robinson[SMTP:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 1997 4:32 PM To: 'EMC PSTC Group' Subject: FW: EN50082-1 ---------------------------------------------------- I apologize if anyone felt that there was misinformation in my write up of EN50082-1 1997. I made a mistake on the "dow," which is really July 1, 2001, not January 1, 2001. I have the final version of EN50082-1, dated August 1997 sitting on my desk. It has been voted on and approved by Cenelec. The natural course of action, as I understand it, is that it will appear in the OJ (if it hasn't already). I have been advising our customers based on the inevitalbe. Since Harmonized standards are voluntary, it is up to the manufacturer as to how they claim compliance to the necessary Directives. Testing to Harmonized standard is one way a manufacturer can claim compliance to the Directives. Thus, I recommend to manufacturers that the latest published EN standard be used when any compliance testing is performed. In this way, no re-testing of products will have to be done later. It is still, however, up to the manufacturer as to which EN standard he will or will not use to claim compliance. And . . . the "fall-back" position mentioned by Jon (EN50082-1 1992) can be taken if the requirements of EN 50082-1 can not be met. This paragraph seemed to cause the most confusion and angst. I have put some corrections and comments in parenthesis. "Commercial, residential and light industrial products tested after March 1, 1998 will be required to test to the new EN50082-1 1997. Products that tested to the old standard, EN50082-1 1992, before March 1, 1998 (the "dop" as it appears in my copy of EN 50082-1 1997), can remain on the market until January 1, 2001. However, a member country can adopt the new standard before January 1, 2001 (really July 1, 2001) and require the manufacture to re-test (this is not my opinion, but rather my understanding of how the EU works). (Because of this fact,) Additionally, any product which needs to be re-tested after March 1, 1998 should be tested to the new standard (my opinion and recomendation). After January 1, 2001(really July 1, 2001), all commercial, residential, light industrial products (according to the scope listed in EN50082-1 1997) sold in the EU will have to comply with EN50082-1 1997 (to show compliance with the EMC Directive)." I welcome additional comments. ---------- From: Jon D Curtis[SMTP:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 1997 8:07 AM To: Todd Robinson Cc: 'Richard Cass'; '[email protected]' Subject: RE: EN50082-1 Dear Todd, What is your reference to state that manufacturers must test to the new revision as of March 1998? Manufacturers customarily have until the date of withdrawal before they must test to a new standard (in this case JAN 2001). It is of course good practice to test to the upcoming version, but to ignore the fall back position of testing to the old standard during the transition period may cause manufacturers unnecesary grief. We also have not seen the publication of the new standard yet in the OJ. Do you have evidence otherwise? Jon D. Curtis, PE Curtis-Straus LLC [email protected] One-Stop Laboratory for EMC, Product Safety and Telecom 527 Great Road voice (508) 486-8880 Littleton, MA 01460 fax (508) 486-8828 http://world.std.com/~csweb On Fri, 3 Oct 1997, Todd Robinson wrote:
