EN 62368-1 will be mandatory by 20 June 2020. Almost all companies have already made clear plans for the introduction of the new standard and have started to implement it gradually. The publication of the EU Communique will have a great impact on brands and manufacturers of information, audio and video products.  For enterprises, this is both an opportunity and a challenge: enterprises can appropriately delay the standard switching time of some products, but at the same time, they need to maintain the parallel state of old and new standards for a longer period of time, and pay close attention to the possible impact of the development of IEC/EN 62368-1 standard on products.

What is the scope of IEC62368-1 applicable products, which brands and manufacturers need to pay attention to it?

This standard mainly involves electronic and electrical equipment, audio and video products, information products, commercial office automation equipment not more than 600V, etc., power products, adapters, monitors, TELEVISIONS, laptops, personal computers and computer peripheral products and so on all use this standard.

On 15 June 2018, the EU finally wrote EN 62368-1:2014 into THE OJ of the LVD Directive 2014/35/EU. The date has been changed many times before, and finally the date has been set at 20 December 2020.

In recent years, with the continuous development of science and technology, electronic products are becoming more and more diversified. How to effectively regulate the safety of cutting-edge electronic products has become a global topic.

In the past, the inclusion of new products into the existing safety regulation system, the need to constantly specify new technical specifications and product catalog, which obviously has a serious lag, does not meet the current changing electronic product market demand.  On the other hand, the boundaries and differences between audio and video equipment and information technology equipment are increasingly blurred, and it is difficult for people to distinguish exactly what is audio and video and what is information technology equipment.  People now take out a mobile phone, from listening to music to communication, take photos, pay anything.

In about 2008, the TECHNICAL committee of IEC was also aware of this problem, and created an IEC Guide 112 to Guide you how to distinguish and evaluate the safety of audio and video equipment and information technology equipment.  TC 108 came out with IEC 62368-1.  Unfortunately, the content has not been fully approved by CENELEC.  EN 62368-1:2014 was not included in the CE LVD OJ until the release of the 3RD Edition of IEC 62368-1:2013.

IEC62368 mandatory implementation date for 20 December 2020, whether it is electronic and electrical products well-known brands or manufacturers, should be implemented as early as possible, so that products are both safe and fast and smooth to enter the market, improve product competitiveness, and to minimize the impact of the standard conversion period on manpower, cost and time.

The design and specification of a product that was previously certified by EN 60950-1 or EN 60065 is likely not to comply with the new VERSION of IEC 62368-1:2014. By applying now, manufacturers will have enough time to correct the non-compliance. In addition, manufacturers will be able to spread the cost of standard conversion over several fiscal years.  If you wait until time is tight, the cost of standard conversion will be concentrated in one year, which will affect the profitability of the statement.