CE marking under the Low Voltage Directive, EMC and RoHS

What the electrical CE package covers

Electrical products are the most common CE marking cases we see: control panels, power supplies, lighting, small appliances, laboratory instruments, chargers and industrial electrical equipment. Most of them fall under three pieces of EU legislation at the same time, and each one needs its own evidence in the technical file.

The Low Voltage Directive 2014/35/EU covers electrical equipment designed for use with a voltage between 50 and 1000 V AC or 75 and 1500 V DC. It sets safety objectives against electric shock, fire, mechanical and other hazards. The EMC Directive 2014/30/EU makes sure equipment does not cause electromagnetic disturbance beyond set limits and is immune enough to work as intended. The RoHS Directive 2011/65/EU restricts certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment.

If your product has a radio function, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or cellular connectivity, the Radio Equipment Directive 2014/53/EU applies instead of the LVD and EMC directives and brings its own requirements. If it is a machine with electrical parts, the Machinery Directive may be the main legislation. We sort this out at the start, because it decides everything that follows.

• Mapping of LVD, EMC, RoHS and any other legislation that applies
• Selection of harmonised standards, for example product safety and EMC emission and immunity standards
• Test plan and coordination with accredited laboratories
• RoHS evidence from your component suppliers
• Technical file, EU Declaration of Conformity and labelling review

Your options: reuse, test or redesign

For many electrical products the main cost is testing, so the first question is what you already have. Valid test reports from accredited laboratories against the current harmonised standards can often be reused. Reports against withdrawn versions, or for a different variant of the product, usually cannot.

When testing is needed, a pre-compliance check is often worth it for EMC. Emission and immunity failures are common on a first full test, and finding them early on a cheaper bench test saves a second round in the accredited laboratory.

If a product fails, the options are a design change, such as filtering, shielding, layout or component changes, or in some cases a narrower intended use. We explain what the test result means and what each option involves, so your engineers can decide.

RoHS evidence is gathered rather than tested in most cases: supplier declarations, material data and, where risk is higher, analysis reports for specific parts. A structured approach to supplier documentation saves time on every future product.

What decides the price

Electrical CE packages start at $800. The price mostly reflects how much testing and documentation your product needs.

• Product type and complexity: a simple power supply versus a multi-function control system
• Number of variants covered by one technical file
• Existing test reports that can be reused
• New tests needed for safety, EMC emission and EMC immunity
• Radio functions, which bring the Radio Equipment Directive into scope
• Component documentation available for RoHS

We confirm the price after a short review of your product, block diagram and existing documents, and put every item in a written quote.

Testing is usually the largest share of the budget, so we plan it carefully: one sample per variant only where the variants differ in ways that matter for safety or EMC, and a test order that finds the likely failures first.