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Electromagnetic Compatibility

6.3EMC Rules and Regulations

The regulations concerning EMC are complex, changing and vary from country to country. The most important point to remember is that if there is no problem there is unlikely to be a legal issue, and in any case prevention is better - and cheaper - than cure.

6.3.1European Regulations

The rules in Europe are complex, because they depend on the type of product, how it is sold, and who installs it.

Legislation, which came into force 1st January 1996, was designed to control emissions and immunity of many types of electrical and electronic equipment for both domestic and industrial applications. This is the EMC directive EEC/89/336, which refers to many Euronorms (such as EN55011, EN55022 etc.) to set the required levels.

However, separate EMC Product standard - EN 61800-3 has now been introduced which overrules these standards for drives products. This is also a complex regulation, but it does define two ‘environments’ - basically Domestic and Industrial, and two distribution methods - Restricted and Unrestricted. Restricted distribution means that the product is sold to a customer with some EMC competence. For Restricted distribution and Industrial installations there are essentially no limits on emission levels. For Domestic installations Class A1 or B1 levels apply, for Restricted and Unrestricted distribution respectively.

As the MICROMASTER is sold via restricted distribution for industrial applications, no limits for emissions apply. However, customers may require the MICROMASTER, or the final installation or equipment to meet other specifications such as the EMC directive. In practice the majority of low voltage MICROMASTERs are sold in Europe with a built in filter because of this.

MICROMASTER Applications Handbook

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