I was just reading an article that discussed international compliance codes…the little logos and acronyms you see on the tags or back of your electronic devices. Here is a list of codes and what they mean:

• UL - Underwriters Laboratories - This means the product has passed US safety guidelines and is also approved by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). If you find a “C” in from of the UL mark, the product has passed Canadian safety regulations as well.
• TUV Rheinland of North America - Technischer Uberwachungs-Verdein - TUV was born out of the German Product Safety Standards and provides testing and certification services for product quality and safety.
• NYCE - Normalizacion Y Certificacion Electronia - Mexico’s mark that is used to certify safety standards. This is underwritten by Underwriters Laboratories as well.
• CE - Conformite Europeene - The CE symbol indicateds that the device or product meets EU Directives used to facilitate trade between member EU countries.
• FCC - Federal Communications Commission - If the device emits any kind of radio frequencies, then the FCC will have to approve the device meets the FCC guidelines.
• C-Tick - Australian Communications Authority - C-Tick is the Australian and New Zealand version of the FCC. This stamp indicates that the electronic device complies with both New Zealand and Australian standards for radio interference.
• BSMI - The Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection - This is Taiwan’s stamp of compatability with electromagnetic standards and regulatory compliance.

Now you know what all of these silly compliance labels mean on your electronics devices.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 18th, 2005 at 8:28 am and is filed under Help Desk News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.