Electrical code Compliance - European Standards Nuance

Author

European Standards Nuance

rover8898

2006-02-10, 2:35 pm

Hello everyone,

I recently talked to a technician of a fairly well known product
certification organisation (which shall remain nameless) who kept
consistently referring to the IEC standard templates as the "European
standards". I was under the impression that the European standards were
either denoted as EN-XXXXX-X-X or as BS EN-XXXXX-X-X. So, did my
technican friend mispeak or was there some underlying nuance to his
words that eluded me ?
The standards that we were discussing were the electromedical ones
(60601 series).

Regards,

Roger

Michael

2006-02-10, 4:21 pm

"rover8898" <rover8898@hotmail.com> wrote in news:1139594084.295750.8370
@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
[snip]
> I was under the impression that the European standards were
> either denoted as EN-XXXXX-X-X or as BS EN-XXXXX-X-X. So, did my
> technican friend mispeak or was there some underlying nuance to his
> words that eluded me ?

The underlying nuance is that many countries in Europe add a prefix to the
European Norm designation. BS stands for >British Standard<, in Germany you
will find DIN EN XXXXX, where DIN stands for >Deutsche IndustrieNorm<.
The content of the Standard is always the same.

The reason is easy to understand - an International Standard or European
Standard serve as blueprint for the national standard. The National
Standard is a copy of this standard. Only the national standard is valid
for the relevant country, but for the European market the simplification by
referring to the European Standard is allowed and makes life easier as you
are compliant to the Standards of several European Countries at once.
From a legal point of view, only the national standard is relevant.
Once the standard is approved by a governmental commission, it gains status
equivalent to a law with all the underlying things like liability etc.

IEC stands for International Electrotechnical Commission, see also
http://www.iec.ch for more information (the technician should do this as
well).

For European Norms, please refer to:
http://www.cenorm.be/

Best regards,
Michael

hrhofmann@att.net

2006-02-13, 2:21 am

Michael wrote:
> "rover8898" <rover8898@hotmail.com> wrote in news:1139594084.295750.8370
> @g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
> [snip]
>
> The underlying nuance is that many countries in Europe add a prefix to the
> European Norm designation. BS stands for >British Standard<, in Germany you
> will find DIN EN XXXXX, where DIN stands for >Deutsche IndustrieNorm<.
> The content of the Standard is always the same.
>
> The reason is easy to understand - an International Standard or European
> Standard serve as blueprint for the national standard. The National
> Standard is a copy of this standard. Only the national standard is valid
> for the relevant country, but for the European market the simplification by
> referring to the European Standard is allowed and makes life easier as you
> are compliant to the Standards of several European Countries at once.
> From a legal point of view, only the national standard is relevant.
> Once the standard is approved by a governmental commission, it gains status
> equivalent to a law with all the underlying things like liability etc.
>
> IEC stands for International Electrotechnical Commission, see also
> http://www.iec.ch for more information (the technician should do this as
> well).
>
> For European Norms, please refer to:
> http://www.cenorm.be/
>
> Best regards,
> Michael

The one point Michael missed was that once the IEC adopts a "standard",
and then the European Community adopts the standard, the individual
member states have a limit time, I think it is a year, but I'm not
sure, in which they must then adopt the EN into their own national
requirements. So there is a time lag of sorts, but Michael was correct
in everything he told you.

H. R(Bob) Hofmann

rover8898

2006-02-13, 10:21 am

Hello,

[snip]
> The underlying nuance is that many countries in Europe add a prefix to the
> European Norm designation. BS stands for >British Standard<, in Germany you
> will find DIN EN XXXXX, where DIN stands for >Deutsche IndustrieNorm<.
> The content of the Standard is always the same.

So, if I understand correctly, the IEC standards and the EN, BS EN &
DIN EN standards are EXACTLY the same. Correct ? Not slightly modified.
The change in nomenclature depicts only the fact that Europe ACTUALLY
adopts the IEC standards. Correct?

Regards,

Roger

Michael

2006-02-13, 4:21 pm

"rover8898" <rover8898@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:1139836529.946318.162100@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

[snip]
> So, if I understand correctly, the IEC standards and the EN, BS EN &
> DIN EN standards are EXACTLY the same. Correct ? Not slightly
> modified. The change in nomenclature depicts only the fact that Europe
> ACTUALLY adopts the IEC standards. Correct?

It is slightly more complicated than that. It is a common (extra-european)
misconception that the IEC standards serve directly as base for the
standards applicable for the individual european countries. The EN standard
is derived from the IEC (or other, e.g. CISPR) standard. This standard is
called the harmonized standard and valid throughout Europe. Local
differences (the wall socket was mentioned earlier) are possible. There are
still some differences within Europe (Great Britain is the most blatant
example for the wall socket).

If you want to ease certification of your equipment in many countries, the
use of the CB Scheme is useful:
http://www.cbscheme.org/
The IEC 60601 based standards are also within the CB Scheme.

HTH

Michael

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