Miscellany

By J. M. Woodgate B.Sc.(Eng.) C.Eng.  MIET SMIEEE FAES Hon FInstSCE MIOA

Miscellany

While the EMC standards scene is not static, there are no major technical themes in current discussion, so several topics call for treatment here.

The legal issue

Following the court ruling that standards notified in the OJ in support of EU legislation are themselves 'part of EU law', the Commission is submitting all candidates for notification to a panel of independent 'HAR consultants'. There is not much consistency between the verdicts of consultants; some are far more meticulous in their critiques of the same standard than others. In particular, an RED consultant has differed considerably from an EMCD consultant. This is probably because not all of the consultants have an interest in the study of law as well as their electrical and electronics studies.

The vetting process has been holding up for indefinite periods the publication of standards that the industry needs, so it has been (reluctantly) agreed that such standards will be published in their present form but not offered to the Commission for notification until the necessary formal matters are addressed so that the consultant can approve notification. One such standard is the latest edition of the EN version of IEC 61000-3-2.

CIS/B/720/NP, Industrial, scientific and medical equipment - Limits and methods of in situ measurements and measurements of large size/high power equipment

This proposal resulted in a comment made to the BSI committee that no justification for proposed limits was provided. This is a pretty fundamental omission!

New CISPR standard

A new standard, CISPR 36, is proposed by CISPR/D:

Electric and hybrid electric road vehicles - Radio disturbance characteristics - Limits and methods of measurement for the protection of off-board receivers below 30 MHz

Not before time!

Amendment of CISPR 35

A new amendment has been circulated:

Amendment 1 - CISPR 35 : Electromagnetic compatibility of multimedia equipment - Immunity

requirements

It has 15 pages, so it is not necessarily a minor matter. It has attracted quite a few comments submitted to the BSI committee

Document providing background for CISPR/A/1282/CD

This mathematical paper is circulated in response to comments on the CD, which is:

CIS/H/386/INF - CISPR/A/1282/CD. Proposed amendment of CISPR 16-4-5 – Radiated Power Limits for the use of reverberation chambers for radiated disturbance measurements

CISPR 12 in trouble

The FDIS for CISPR 12, ed. 7 (CISPR/D/449/FDIS) was rejected with just 60% positive votes from the P-members and 33,3% negative votes from all members. According to ISO/IEC Directives Part 1, subcommittee CISPR/D must now decide how to proceed with the project.

According to the ISO/IEC rules the following options are possible for CISPR 12, ed. 7:

Option 1: The project will continue with another CD.

Option 2: The project will continue with another CDV.

Option 3: The project will be cancelled.

The relevant Trade Association has proposed to BSI to vote for Option 1.

The Trade Association has also submitted comments on the new CISPR 36 draft mentioned above, and more extensive comments on the proposed fifth edition of CISPR 25:

Vehicles, boats and internal combustion engines - Radio disturbance characteristics - Limits and methods of measurement for the protection of on-board receivers

This project was intended to produce an amendment, but it proved so extensive that a new edition is necessary.