compliance

In the rush to complete RF immunity testing on schedule, it is not all that unusual to overlook inherent test equipment limitations. While some test equipment characteristics such as power amplifier harmonics are obviously a limiting factor, the broadband characteristics of antennas, directional couplers, power meters and isotropic field probes can hardly be considered a limitation for most applications. However, when used with power amplifiers exhibiting significant harmonic distortion in Immunity test systems, the broadband characteristics of these devices can result in measurement uncertainty and unacceptable errors.

Standards are increasingly important in our modern global economy – supply chains can be dizzyingly complex, and implementing the economic theory of comparative advantage has been more and more possible as the relative cost of transportation has declined over the years. Since the 1890s, the United States has been the world’s top manufacturing country. The world continues to change. Recently it was reported that China surpassed Japan as the second largest economy, and it is estimated that China will soon surpass the United States.

Most manufacturers of electrical and electronic equipment have some sort of a regulatory compliance program. These may be part of the company’s internal procedures, a subscription to a compliance related database or various bits and pieces of information held by key people within the organization. No matter how complex or simple, it is imperative that management involved in global regulatory compliance issues have the right information needed to make their programs work efficiently.

Product liability has created problems for manufacturers and product sellers for many decades. These problems have been exacerbated by the expansion of product liability laws throughout the world. In addition, there has been a proliferation of safety regulatory requirements, starting in the United States and then moving to the European Union. In addition, countries such as Japan, China, Australia, Canada, Brazil and South Africa have all recently established or strengthened their product safety regulatory regimes and requirements.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed forfeiture penalties against three Tier III wireless carriers in Texas and Oklahoma for failing to offer their customers the required number or percentage of hearing aid compatible (HAC) handsets.

The Commission of the European Union (EU) has published an updated list of standards that can be used to demonstrate conformity with the essential requirements of its directive relating to the safety of toys (88/378/EEC).