Enclosure Design

 

CE Marking

Most categories of electrical products must bear a CE mark if you intend to sell them in the Europe. A CE mark and accompanying Declaration of Conformity is a contract between a manufacturer (producer) and the state that the product complies with the relevant regulations, such as the Low Voltage Directive (LVD), Machinery Directive and Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Directive. CE compliance may simply be stated by following a self certification route, may be ascertained by using a notified body to carry out analysis and testing of a new product, or a combination of both. The Declaration of Conformity must be signed by a designated person in the manufacturer / producers company who is responsible for ensuring the product is compliant. Which route to take will be down to your individual requirements. The 'best' route is to submit a new product design to a notified body (a registered company that provides compliance testing) to ensure that you are fully complaint. If you wish we can deal with this for you. Alternatively you may decide that the cost of this is too high for a particular product, or the risk of non-compliance is low, and instead self certify the product.

 

EuP - Energy Using Products Directive

EuP is an emerging EcoDesign requirement that manufacturers of a wide range of electrical and electronic equipment need to meet to maintain CE marking for their products, so that they can continue to be sold in Europe. The Directive became law in EU Member States in August 2007. It provides a framework for setting EcoDesign requirements for any group of products which use energy, with the exception of vehicles for transport. Lighting, IT and consumer electronics sectors are amongst the first industry sectors to be directly affected. However, cross-industry product groups will affect huge swathes of the European electronics industry in due course.

 

WEEE - Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations

Any business that manufactures or distributes household or non-household electrical products within the European Union needs to comply with the WEEE regulations. They are one of a series of new 'producer responsibility’ directives that require producers of new equipment to pay for the recycling and/or safe treatment and disposal of the products they put on the market when they eventually come to be thrown away. The producer of an electronic product (the company the product is branded under) has a legal responsibility to register with a WEEE compliance scheme and it is a criminal offence not to comply with the regulations if your product comes under their scope.

 

Batteries Directive

The UK and all other EU Member States have a deadline of 26 September 2008 to transpose the provisions of The Batteries Directive into national law. Battery producers, who include manufacturers and importers of equipment that contain batteries, are responsible for financing the recycling of batteries at the end of their life. Other countries outside the EU have also introduced their own measures that affect batteries.

 

Packaging Waste Regulations

The Packaging Waste Regulations work on the principle of Shared Producer Responsibility, encouraging producers to take responsibility for their environmental impact. The Regulations require obligated producers to pay a proportion of the cost of the recovery and recycling of their packaging.

 

Electronic Manufacturers

Thinking of having your product manufactured in China, India, or another low labour cost country? This can be a very cost effective route for electronic product manufacture, but you should bear in mind that these countries are not always the best choice with the new environmental producer regulations coming into force in Europe and maybe also your companies own environmental policies. Many products can be cost effectively manufactured in the UK and there are several European countries, such as Bulgaria and Poland, that also provide very low cost manufacturing choices, without the higher transportation financial and eco costs of further afield countries. Remember also to factor in your costs of dealing with offshore manufacturers. Any production cost savings need to cover your own companies costs of visiting distant manufacturers, both in terms of staff time and travel costs. If your company is environmentally aware and views carbon footprints as important you also need to factor in that many low cost manufacturing counties rely on fossil fuels for the bulk of their power generation, dramatically increasing the carbon footprint of their manufacturing processes.

Below are some of the UK based electronic subcontract manufacturing companies we or our clients have used and can recommend.