Rick Cooper, MET Laboratories’ Product Safety Lab Director, is giving a presentation at Nemko AS this week on the differences between household product certification in North America versus Europe (IEC 60335-1). For those who can’t make it to Oslo, Norway, here is an abridged outline of the presentation.
Canada is more harmonized with the IEC 60335 series than the U.S. or Mexico.
United States has a lack of harmonization internationally, including with Canada. The U.S. has 34 legacy standards and 3 IEC-style standards.
Mexico participates in IECEE CB Scheme for HOUS. National differences apply and are contained in NMX-J-521-1.
What’s coming?
- Proposed tri-national standard UL/CSA/ANCE 60335-1, First Edition
- Increased harmonization between the US, Canada, Mexico and IEC 60335-1
- No effective date published yet, but assumed to be in 2011
- Harmonization should prove to ease the acceptance of household products worldwide through the CB scheme