The vagueness may be due to to the fact that, despite being
treaty bound to do so by 1-July-91, there have been no measures
that will give the EMC directive weight of law in Ireland. The
Statutory Instrument to put it into effect is waiting at the Attorney
General's Office. It may be put into effect at the end of this
month.
When it does come into effect, If you chose to meet the harmonised
standards to demonstate compliance with the essential
protection requirements, the equipment will probably class as
information technology equipment it will therfore have to meet
the radiated and conducted emissions limits in EN50022. If you
label it not for use in domestic premises you should be able to
test to the more relaxed A levels. If you read the thread on class
A or B you will realise this is a controversial matter especially in
Germany. You will need to meet the the immunity standards
given in one of the generic immunity standards, probably the
domestic, commercial and light industrial one EN50082-1.
Until this is updated and strengthened, probably at the end of this
year, this involves tests of immunity to radiated RF fields to
IEC801-3, immuity to electrostatic discharge to IEC801-2 and
immunity to fast electrical transients to IEC801-4
Your equipment not classed as domestic equipment so it does
not have to meet EN60555-2 or EN60555-3. However according
to the letter of the law it would have to meet the stricter
EN1000-3-2 on harmonic distortion of the mains current waveform.
There has been an ammendment published that will put off the
application of this standard until the middle of 1998 but this has
not been published in the Official Journal and so has no effect at
present. It is not certain it will be published. There has been a
long thread here on the matter of harmonic standards.
I hope this gives you a start on a complcated matter
Nick Rouse
