Front End | News EMC test lab leads the way
As one of the first test houses in the UK to be UKAS accredited to EN 55032 (CISPR32), testing at RN Electronics in Brentwood, Essex, is already underway on a range of professional audio equipment to the new standard. RN Electronics were keen to have the new standard (which was published in the Official Journal in December last year) on their schedule, as “we have a number of clients in the professional audio and IT
equipment sectors. This new standard will make their life much easier when it comes to testing” commented Roger Ray, the company’s technical director. EN 55032 is the new standard for
electronics described as Multimedia Equipment (MME). MME are electronic products that incorporate a range of functions that include those in audio equipment, video equipment, information technology equipment (ITE) and broadcast
receiving equipment. MME also covers entertainment lighting control equipment as well as combinations of all these equipment types.
The latest version of EN 55032:2015 was published on 3rd July and contains technical revisions of the 2012 version, which replaces EN 55022 (IT equipment), EN 55013 (broadcast receivers and associated equipment) and EN 55103-1 (professional audio and studio equipment).
Helping UK schools to achieve awards success
Newbury Electronics has helped Team Impulse, a group of students from St Paul’s School, London, to come first in the European CanSat 2015 competition. The company first became involved with this team of young engineers when they were asked to supply prototype PCBs back in the autumn of 2014. These were then
incorporated into the satellite that secured them first place in the UK competition and took them onto the final international round, recently held in Lisbon, Portugal. Philip King, managing director at Newbury Electronics, said, “It is great to be able to encourage the next generation of engineers and to see what they are able to
achieve. We look forward to hearing more about Team Impulse’s ideas and projects in the future and are considering other ways of helping schools and universities with their various projects.”
In the CanSat competition, teams’ ‘can satellites’ are launched in a rocket to an altitude of about a kilometre, before descending by a parachute. Team Impulse designed and produced a semi- autonomous rover, which was capable of measuring air temperature, pressure and humidity, while using an infrared camera to produce a heat map of the ground. Regrettably, the IR camera broke shortly before launch and the CanSat couldn’t be demonstrated roving immediately after launch. However, the damage was repaired fast enough to give a successful live demonstration during the presentation to judges the next day. In addition, the team streamed data back to the ground from launch until the CanSat dropped below the horizon - this allowed detailed analysis. The combination of the live rover demonstration, the high quality reports and the data collected were persuasive to the judges, and Team Impulse came first in its (advanced) category.
6 July/August 2015 Components in Electronics
EN 55032 has been developed to address the fact that modern day ITE equipment now integrates many different functions and capabilities. These were previously assessed by the different standards, for example, a PC with built-in TV receiver, CD player and camera. Instead of separate compliance standards for equipment that can be considered IT, video or audio, there is now a single standard, EN 55032 that covers all those types of equipment. There are subtle differences between the old and new standards. The more stringent Class B limits in the new standard are only applied to equipment primarily intended for the ‘residential environment’. Equipment for use anywhere else only has to meet the easier Class A limit. This is a relaxation particularly for professional audio and some industrial products. The important new requirement is that all the relevant functions of the product comply. RN Electronics are now offering UKAS
accredited testing to the new standard. Although EN 55022 and EN 55013 remain in force until March 2017, products that fall under their scope can continue to be sold into the EU using existing Declarations of Conformity.
Ray concluded, “We are delighted that
we are now able to handle much larger equipment and offer a faster lead time.”
As part of a strategic initiative to ensure its customers’ favourite products are readily available for immediate despatch and next day delivery, RS Components has enhanced its stockholding of the most wanted product lines from Alpha Wire. “At RS we pride ourselves on delivering the fastest turnaround in the business, and the key is in maintaining the right stock profile,” said Valerie Ramon of RS Components. “We have recently changed the way we do this with our major partners, taking advantage of the latest information technology, and have increased our investment in the most important lines to further improve our services to customers.”
Car park solutions specialist, Newpark Solutions, has made use of Zytronic’s touch sensors on a new payment and validation terminal for parking and access control systems. The Newpark Fusion GTS provides a
ticketless method for users to pay for their parking. Using a high definition automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) camera for access control, the Fusion GTS can be operated with or without barriers. Vandal resistant Zytronic ZYBRID touch sensors were chosen for use in the Newpark self-service terminal.
Excelsys Technologies has announced the addition of Astute Electronics to its distribution network. Astute will distribute solutions from Excelsys Technologies to customers in the military, security, communication and defence industries throughout the UK. “Astute’s successful engineering driven demand creation coupled with their preferred supplier status at the UK’s leading Tier 1 OEMs will help Excelsys generate significant new opportunities, particularly for our Hi-Rel COTS products” said Conor Duffy, European sales manager at Excelsys.
www.cieonline.co.uk
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