Product
Certification

Electronic Hardware Certifications

Product certification can’t be ignored when planning to release a product to market. Certifications not only give your cutomers and distributers more confidence that you’ve met specific standards but they also protect you from liability.

We recommned to start the certification process when at least 90% of the product has been verified and debugged. The certification process is not done in one take and usually several changes are required until testing has been successfully completed.

Common types of certifications

FCC

FCC (Federal Communications Commission) is required if you are selling your product in the US. It can take anywhere from 8-12 weeks to obtain this certification.

CE

If you are selling your product in Europe you will need CE certification. The CE mark indicates that the manufacturer is in compliance with the relevant EU legislation and the product may be sold anywhere in the European Economic Area (EEA). Average time to obatin the CE mark is 4 -6 weeks.

UL

The UL mark has become one of the world's famous safety certification marks. UL Certification shows that a company meets all local and federal safety and environmental regulations. Although this certification is not required, you can be assured that your distributer will require UL certification since American consumers have more confidence in a product with UL mark.

Time to obtain UL certification can be anywhere from 3-8 months depending on the complexity of the product.

RoHS

RoHS stands for Restriction of Hazardous Substances. This certification confirms you meet the restriction of the 10 following hazordous materials:

Cadmium (Cd): < 100 ppm
Lead (Pb): < 1000 ppm
Mercury (Hg): < 1000 ppm
Hexavalent Chromium: (Cr VI) < 1000 ppm
Polybrominated Biphenyls (PBB): < 1000 ppm
Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDE): < 1000 ppm
Bis(2-Ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP): < 1000 ppm
Benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP): < 1000 ppm
Dibutyl phthalate (DBP): < 1000 ppm
Diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP): < 1000 ppm

If you are selling your product in California or the EU you will need RoHS certification which on average takes about 4 weeks to obtain.