There are two main EU Directives covering product safety and safety testing: the Low Voltage Directive and The General Product Safety Directive.
Low Voltage Directive (LVD) 2014/35/EU
The Low Voltage Directive, 2014/35/EU, is applicable to all “equipment” placed on the market in the European Union that is “designed for use with a voltage rating of between 50 and 1 000 V for alternating current and between 75 and 1 500 V for direct current” unless used in some specific applications detailed in Annex II.
The new 2014 version is similar in scope to the 2006 version but contains additional measures as part of alignment with the New Legislative Framework, or NLF. This imposes additional administrative requirements on the manufacturer and the supply chain and became mandatory on 20 April 2016.
In 2016 The European Commission produced Guidelines on the application of the directive.
The latest list of Harmonised Standards for the LVD, 2014/35/EU, can be found here.
Safety Assessments
We can perform a safety assessment of your product against a number of safety standards including: EN 62368-1 for Information Technology, Radio and Telecommunications Equipment; and EN61010-1 for Test & Measurement Equipment.
We have also undertaken independent assessments of 3rd party items such as CE marked external power supplies companies are buying to sell with their products to check whether or not they are actually safe – and we have found a number that are not.
A recent exercise saw us fault testing some rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries. Whilst the external designs were the same, one battery contained short-circuit protection, but the other did not. We stopped fault testing the 2nd battery when it reached 100 degC and was still delivering 10A current into the test load!
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