By Andrew Johnson, Director of Product Management
New safety standards based on IEC 62368-1 are superseding existing standards worldwide. In a move that keeps things simple for product vendors, regulators in the US and EU have decided to harmonize the date the new standards will supplant the outgoing 60950-1 and 60065 standards. This harmonized date is now December 20, 2020, giving vendors a unified target to focus their regulation compliance efforts in two of the most important worldwide markets.
This positive development has come about as the EU has extended the date for “cessation of presumption of conformity” for existing products already tested in accordance with the old standards. This cessation was originally scheduled for June 20, 2019, although the date of withdrawal for EN 60950-1 and EN 60065 had been set for December 20, 2020. By consolidating these two events on the 2020 date, the EU can avoid allowing any unintended exceptions.
The situation is unambiguous now: on December 20, 2020, the old standards will be withdrawn, and any product covered by the scope of EN 62368-1 (the IEC standard as written into law by EU legislators) must be tested in accordance with that standard. Following the EU’s announcement, the UL organization in the US confirmed it would move its own Effective Date for UL 62368-1 (the US version of IEC 62368-1) to supersede UL 60950-1 and UL 60065 (previously scheduled for June 20, 2019) to December 20, 2020.
Therefore, December 20, 2020 is the date everything will change. And as the rule-makers have harmonized across the waters, OEMs get a little more time to put their new testing procedures and documentation in place. However, December is quickly approaching and the time to act is now.
Read CUI’s blog, “The Latest on 62368-1” to learn about the upcoming safety standard and how you can best prepare for it.
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