COMPLIANCE TESTING


Andy Pye and Jonathan Newell review the Radio Equipment Directive and what is likely to happen in future as Brexit looms.


Where to now, the Radio Equipment Directive?


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or all its promise of convenience, efficiency, fun and even future necessity, the Internet of Things (IoT) brings with it the potential for device manufacturers’


compliance anxiety as the race to get connected is held back by the anchors of an increasingly complex regulatory compliance environment. Recognising this changing environment, the standards bodies are striving for a simpler set of regulations to make it clearer to manufacturers and ease the process of gaining compliance but the standards which need to be met still depend on the technology within the product and the environment in which it will be used. Gaining the CE mark is a requirement in the EU for electrical apparatus, which is any finished appliance or combination, it isn’t required for fixed installations such as electrical equipment that forms part of a factory production line, for example. The Radio Equipment Directive (RED


2014/53/EU) is an important addition which covers connected devices. Adopted by the European Union on 16 April 2014,


Testing & Test Houses 2017


RED replaces the previous directive RTTED 1999/5/EC, better known as R&TTE. The RED took effect on 13 June 13 2016, with an additional transition period of one year for manufacturers to comply with the new requirements. That’s now up. The Radio Equipment Directive (RED) is the new big compliance issue for anything that can receive or transmit signals: that means all wireless devices, all IoT devices, wearables and even RFID enabled equipment. This means the Directive covers stuff that would never have required compliance in the past and that, with the IoT, amounts to zillions of things.


RED replaces the now defunct RTT&E and effectively increases the scope. It doesn’t cover EMC or product safety, there are different Directives for that. Nor does it cover so-called “domain- specific” requirements such as aerospace, household appliance or automotive standards. What it means is that if you produce something electrical, under 240V and


with a transmitter or receiver, you need to be compliant to all of the EMC, Low Voltage and RED Directives as a minimum for CE marking, plus whatever product standards might apply. RED raises the requirements on radio equipment such as broadcast digital TV and radio receivers, mobile phones, satellite receivers and any equipment that uses WLAN, Bluetooth or ZigBee. With RED, not only radio transmitters, but also radio receivers have to meet minimum regulatory performance requirements and need to be tested. What about Brexit? The RED applies to: • All 27 EU member states • Three EEA countries • Switzerland


All CE rules will continue to apply until


we have actually left the Single Market (if we do), but UK influence on the rules is already greatly diminished. The first thing to be said is that for the moment nothing changes. In the 24 months leading up to our possible exit, the UK remains a full member of the EU and it will be expected to apply every one of the existing Single Market measures, in full. By voting for exit, the UK has now forfeited a substantial proportion of its influence over how those measures will be developed in the future, but the legislation will remain in place in Europe and UK companies will have to abide by it if they wish to continue to sell into the single market, even if UK decides to repeal some of them for internal trade. As things stand at present, the exit will


have no effect on the UK’s participation in the European standards bodies, CEN and CENELEC. The current presumption whereby British Standards are withdrawn in favour of Harmonised European standards has never been mentioned in the debate about Brexit and it seems likely that it will remain for the foreseeable future. Since the majority of the detailed design measures for CE marked products come from standards, there will be little practical change so far as equipment designers are concerned. EE


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