Getting Your Product a CE Marking under the EMC Directive

What is an EMC Directive? The various types of electrical and electronic goods that are sold in the European Union countries and the EFTA (European Free Trade Association) are covered under the EMC Directive. But products like the telecommunications, radio and equipments that are needed to be installed on aircraft are exceptions to this directive as these products are covered by additional directives.

Under the old EMC directive, the electrical goods for military requirements were exempted but they are now covered under the renewed 2004/108/EC Directive. This reason for this was that the military standards for safety and quality are much more stringent than any other.  When you mark a product as CE then you cannot have anything optional. All the emissions and safety requirements that are applicable to a certain type of product must be taken into consideration while assessing them for CE conformity. A CE certification is simply a type of safety standard followed by the EU markets. If a product is CE certified, it means that it has been tested to meet all the requirements laid down by the European Commission’s Directives. The product must be assessed for CE conformity only if it falls under the products mentioned in any of the EC’s directives.

One of such directives is the EMC directive. It has the detailed list of criteria that should be fulfilled by the design and manufacture of any equipment. According to its rules, the level of any electromagnetic disturbances generated by the product must not be above the level at which telecommunications, radio and other electronic equipments work. It also states that the product must have a certain level of protection that lets the equipment to continue working without degrading to an unacceptable condition while being used as intended.

A manufacturer can show CE compliance of his product in two ways under the EMC directive. First way is by assessing the product to comply with the harmonized standards and maintain a file of technical detail supporting he product’s conformity to the directive’s requirement. The procedure can be applied either to a single product or to a range of products. Second way is to make a technical file explaining how the product satisfies the directive’s norms. Then get a formal opinion from a Notified Body like the European Lab stating that your product has met all the requirements of the EMC directive.