Regulatory Compliance Testing and Certification
DEFINITION
Ops A La Carte offers the expertise and experience to help you understand and meet every regulatory certification needed to ship your product. We can save you time and money by avoiding those costly delays or fines that result from not doing things correctly the first time. With years of specialized Compliance Testing experience and established contacts in your targeted countries, the Ops A La Carte compliance team manages the process of global certification. Here’s what we can do for you:
- Determine every certification and mark necessary for your product
- Define a testing strategy that meets the requirements of your product
- Prepare the correct documentation
- Complete and submit the application for each country
- Obtain every certification you need
- Provide professional project management and consulting every step of the way
Compliance Expertise – Ops A La Carte’s compliance team has the background, proven methodologies and worldwide contacts to test and obtain all the certifications you need to ship your product around the globe
Project Management & Consulting – We work with you to plan and implement your compliance tasks and testing requirements, ensuring you ship on time and within budget.
SITUATION
While your product is being designed, your team will require knowledge of the current regulatory standards and will need to devise a plan for achieving them. Of the many potential activities to decide upon, which ones will fit within the time frame of your General Availability (GA) announcement? Which ones will provide the desired return on investment?
OBJECTIVE
From an understanding of your requirements develop a set of short and long-term action plan that will ensure your product’s ability to meet the demands of the global market.
VALUE TO YOUR ORGANIZATION
Prior to shipping a product, if we can assure that the product not only meets all of its specifications, but that it also will work in all customer applications, the reliability of the product in the field will be greatly increased. And for any issues that exist, the earlier we find them, the less expensive the fix will be.
RELIABILITY INTEGRATION
An example of Reliability Integration during Regulatory Compliance Testing and Certification is as follows:
Much of the regulatory tests are the basic tests that we perform during reliability testing. Therefore, when writing the reliability test plan, we can consider these tests and make sure there is complete coverage without any duplication. During DVT, electrical parameters are tested to their specifications, typically one parameter at a time. This assures us that the product meets its specifications but does not provide information about design margins. HALT can be used to do this. In HALT, we can take over where we left off in DVT with a variety of different parameters, including (but not limited to) voltage, load, frequency, and timing.
METHODOLOGY
To quickly determine the tools and approaches used across your organization, we will meet with key members of your organization to determine the best strategy for your product, including which certifications/countries to go after and in what order.
TESTING REQUIREMENTS
A. EMC TESTING:
Requirements: Fully functional system with all circuit boards and Field Replaceable Units (FRU’s).
Test duration: approximately 1 week, with no major emissions problems found.
At 3rd party approximately 2 weeks, with no major emissions/problems found.
B. PRODUCT SAFETY TESTING AT 3RD PARTY
Requirements: Fully functional system with all circuit boards and FRU’s.
Testing period: with no major issues/problems found, approximately 2 weeks. Notice of Authorization (NoA) authored at the conclusion of Safety testing and typically precedes all other reports.
UL and UlcUL Mark
UL to receive all safety-related documents, i.e. Bill of Materials, product manuals, safety warnings and safety labels for use in reviewing the product safety requirements. Additional tests (i.e. thermal, in-rush, humidity, etc) may be required for preparing the UL safety reports and the FUS (Follow up service procedures).
Resulting documents: UL Authorization, UL Report, CB Report and Certificate. The CB report is typically required for all other agency compliance certifications and/or markings. A CB report can only be obtained from agencies in countries where the country in question has adopted the IEC standard for which the report is desired.
National standards are usually numbered in a recognizable fashion. As an example — for ITE, the IEC standard for safety is IEC 60950. The same number is used in Canada, Europe, and the United States, but it is prefaced by EN, CSA, and UL respectively.
C. AGENCY COMPLIANCE CERTIFICATIONS / MARKINGS:
We have expertise in Agency Compliance Certifications for the following markings/countries:
- CE (Europe)
- GS or VDE (Germany)
- GOST Mark (Russia)
- NOM Marks (Mexico)
- UL AR + S Marks (Argentina)
- MIC Mark (Korea)
- BSMI (Taiwan)
- CCC (China)
- SII (Israel)
- C-TICK Mark (AS/NSZ)
CE (European Union (EU) Countries)
Requirements: Once all EMC and Safety related test reports/certifications have been received, the Agency Complaince Engineer will author the Declaration of Conformity (DoC). The “Declaration of Conformity” is a method of declaring compliance to international EMC and safety requirements around the world. The DoC allows the placement of the CE Mark on your product. In the United States, manufacturers making a DoC must have had their products tested at a lab that is NVLAP accredited. NVLAP is an independent organization that recognizes quality programs for compliance to national and international standards.
GS or VDE (Germany)
Requirements: 1) User Manual, including German translation, 2) Acoustic declaration, 3) Bill Of Materials, 4) Agency Certs for Critical Component (Switches, fuses, line filters, fans, etc.), 5) CB report for power supply, 6) Labels or label drawings (power, warnings), 7) Schematics, if lithium battery is used, 8) Material manufacturer and grade of plastics, 9) Pin-outs of accessible ports, 10) GS A Cenlec CIG023 report (Factory Inspection)
Resulting documents: GS Certificate
GOST Mark (Russia)
Requirements: 1) Product description, 2) Product Identity similar to Declaration of Similarity, 3) Power of Attorney, 4) Russian Declaration
Resulting documents: GOST Certificate
NOM Marks (Mexico)
Requirements: 1) Technical Descriptions, 2) Product Data Sheet, 3) Commercial Brochure, 4) Instruction Manual (if different than Users Guide), 5) Photos of equipment’s label (clear view), 6) Model Variants, 7) Importation Information
Resulting documents: NOM / NYCE Certificate
UL AR + S Marks (Argentina)
Requirements: 1) UL report, 2) Argentinean Power cords
Resulting documents: UL DE ARGENTINA S.R.L. CERTIFICATE
MIC Mark (Korea)
Requirements: 1) Exact Model Number for Test Report and Application Form Product Model Number (PMN), 2) Applicant Company Name, 3) Applicant Company Address, 4) Applicant CEO or Responsible Person (contact name), 5) Actual Factory Name(s), 6) Actual Factory Address(es), 7) User’s Manual (Korean if possible – if not, a portion of the English manual will be translated), 8) Functional Block Diagram, 9) Label Format including same model number as test report and Application Form (hard and soft copies of the label, Note: A contract with a Korean local representative is required.
Resulting documents: MIC Certificate
BSMI (Taiwan)
Requirements: BSMI requirements are based on Chinese National Standards (CNS) of Taiwan, as such only external power supply FRUs are required to have this mark.
Resulting documents: BSMI mark
CCC (China)
Requirements: CCC requirements are based on Chinese National Standards (CNS) of Taiwan, as such only power supply FRUs are required to have this mark.
Resulting documents: CCC mark
SII (Israel)
Requirements: 1) No Mark is required, 2) SII requirements are based on EN55024
C-TICK Mark (AS/NSZ)
Requirements: 1) Test report from a Certified Laboratory, 2) A description of the product which will positively identify it including brand name, model number, photograph and a block diagram of functionality and application. Typically a commercial datasheet as used by the Sales Department satisfies this requirement, 3) Relevant drawings and circuit diagrams, 4) Installation and Operation Manual, 5) These documents can be supplied as hard copy or in electronic form. If the Test Report is supplied in electronic form, a hard copy of the statement of compliance made by the laboratory with the signatures of the persons certifying Compliance and a statement that the electronic copy is a true copy of the original test report, 6) Conformance data, test certificates, safety test reports and product data/manuals must be given to the Australian agents. The agents evaluate, analyze and prepare the appropriate documents, and forward these to the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) for review, 7) Review period: Approximately 3 months. ACA approves product data, (with no major problems in documents) and issues a release to the agent. The Agent issues the import registration certificate.
Resulting documents: Declaration of Conformity: A Compliance Folder in accordance with ACA Regulations
VCCI Mark (Japan)
Requirements: 1) Online Submittal, 2) OEM Member numbers, 3) 3rd party Radiated and Conducted Site Number
Resulting documents: VCCI Mark
D. ACOUSTICS TESTING
Applicable Standards: ISO 7779, ISO 3744
Requirements: 1) Fully loaded system with all circuit boards and FRUs. Circuit boards need not be “functional”, however they must be capable of supplying a load, 2) Testing period: Usually 1 day. Test report follows in 1-2 weeks.
Resulting documents: NAVLAP accredited lab report and approval.
