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IOT PRODUCT CERTIFICATION & CE MARKING – WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO?

When a manufacturer wants to launch a new product on the market, this product must comply with laws and regulations, including in the case of IoT products. As a producer, you are responsible for, for example, the safety of your product. (Inter)national norms and standards have been drawn up for this purpose. In this article we explain which standards and norms a IoT product usually must meet requirements to be sold on the European and International market.

CE marking on your product or IoT sensor

First of all, what is a CE marking? CE stands for Conformité Européenne. This means that something is in accordance with European legislation. When a product complies with the relevant European legislation, the manufacturer may affix a CE mark to it. Whether a product complies is determined on the basis of specified tests from the norms and standards. A manufacturer may carry out some of these tests himself, other tests must be carried out by a so-called “Notified Body”: This is an organization designated by an EU country to assess the conformity of certain products before they are placed on the market.

Please note that this concerns European legislation. If you want to introduce a product in other markets, for example the North American market, you may have to comply with local legislation and an assessment against European legislation is not sufficient. For example, “Radio equipment” in the USA is regulated by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission).
It is therefore important to make an overview of the countries in which your product will be sold or used. An overview of the rules and legislation to be followed can then be linked to this.

Radio Equipment Directive (RED) & Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC)

To place a CE mark on the product, it must comply with the applicable norms and standards for this product. For IoT products you usually have to deal with the Radio Equipment Directive (RED), Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) and a General Product Safety Guidelines. The RED assesses the product (within certain voltage limits) for health and safety requirements and no radio interference may be caused to other equipment. The EMC directive stipulates that an electronic product does not cause electromagnetic disturbance or is itself disturbed. This compliance with the law and regulations says nothing about the quality or guarantees of a product.

IP security class (IP rating)

In addition to a CE marking, there are other characteristics of products for which you can receive a quality mark. For example, the IP protection class of a product: The IP security class, also called International Protection Rating, is a code for electrical equipment that represents the degree of security of the device in question. The code indicates to what extent the electronic device or housing is protected against moisture, water, touch, etc. These tests can also be done in test houses designed for this purpose. Consider immersing a product or aiming a water spray at the product.

At Dent we help our customers in the process of testing the new product and thus being allowed to carry the CE marking. We provide advice and/or obtain advice from other experts and the notified bodies. This advice is of course about the design of the product, but also about the steps to be taken to achieve certification. We maintain contact with the test houses and we assist during the tests.

Figure 3: Pre-Compliance testing by Dent IoT at Leap Development

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Niels Stamhuis

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niels@dentiot.com

Multisensor: A blueprint for speed

In many Dent IoT Engineering projects we use Multisensor as a starting point, also for creating customized solutions. With its 7 different sensors, LoRa and Bluetooth, Multisensor ensures that most IoT cases can be realized. Additional required sensors can be easily attached, and additional pieces of code can be easily uploaded, so that even complicated challenges can be tackled quickly. Knowing more? Contact us!

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