Differences In North American And European LED Market Entry Requirements

Differences in North American and European LED Market Entry Requirements

  As a new generation of green lighting, LED products have gradually increased to global applications. At the same time, with the global economic situation picking up and the development of China's LED industry, the scale of China's semiconductor lighting industry continues to grow. LED general lighting is still the most important market development. driving force.

  The export of LED lighting products in our country shows that overseas markets are blooming and the structure of export regions is more balanced. Among them, the North American and European Union markets have become China's two largest LED product export regions, but LED lamp products in the two regions have different levels of regulatory requirements, how to meet the regulatory requirements of the two places and the market demand has always been made in China Business concerns.

  The LED lighting products exported to the North American market also need to meet the electrical safety, electromagnetic compatibility, energy efficiency, and chemical test requirements required by the US regulations; however, these requirements differ from the EU directive requirements to varying degrees:

a. Electrical safety test

  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the U.S. Department of Labor requires that products used in the workplace must be tested and certified by the NRTL to ensure the safety of the user. Therefore, most electrical products enter the market. The US market must comply with the NRTL logo, and OSHA authorizes the international certification body to serve as an NRTL certification authority for testing and certification according to the applicable standards of the product. For the Canadian market, electrical products sold or imported into Canada must be validated in Canada. Testing must be completed by a laboratory approved by the Canadian Standards Committee (SCC).

  North American lighting standards are quite different from the EU IEC, and North American electrical safety testing does not need to consider EMF requirements. North American lighting standards generally determine the scope of the standard according to the intended use and location of use.

b. Energy efficiency test

  Some areas of the United States also provide different levels of financial subsidies for ENERGY STAR or DLC-certified luminaire products; the current energy efficiency test of LED bulbs and luminaires in the United States is mainly focused on LED luminaires Energy Star and DLC, LightingFactslabel are all voluntary. Sexual requirements, the United States federal minimum efficiency requirements (DOE) have not yet included the LED bulbs and LED lamps into the scope of control. However, in California, mobile LED lighting must meet the special requirements of energy consumption in California.

  In Europe, due to the ban on the sale of incandescent lamps, the demand for LED lighting is expected to increase gradually. In addition, a wide variety of applications, including automotive, outdoor and decorative applications, as well as the demand for indoor use of LED lighting, will also increase. Meeting the EU regulatory requirements will also become a challenge for Chinese manufacturers.

  According to the European Commission’s ordinance, sales of lighting fixtures and similar products must be affixed with CE certification labels in Europe. Products must be marked with the CE mark and must comply with the European Union’s electrical safety, EMC, chemical substances, energy consumption and energy efficiency labels for lighting products.

a. Electrical safety test

  The Low Voltage Directive (LVD) establishes overall safety requirements for all low-voltage products that enter the European Union. Semiconductor lighting products fall under its definition of low-voltage products and must therefore follow the low voltage directive. Different LED lamp products have different test standards

b. EMC test

  According to EU Directive 2014/30/EU, battery-compatible tests include two aspects: Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and Electromagnetic Tolerance (EMS). The former mainly includes conducted interference and radiation interference, while the latter mainly considers products such as electrostatic discharge. Radiation, bursts, surges, and the ability to withstand disturbances, ie interference immunity tests. The main test standards are: EN55015; EN61547 and EN61000-3-2 power supply harmonic requirements, EN61000-3-3 power supply flicker requirements.

c. ERP instruction

  For LED light products, the ERP Directive requires that the LED lights and control devices meet the following requirements:

  Energy consumption requirements: maximum energy efficiency index EEI of the luminaire; no-load power of the control device, standby power, and load efficiency;

  LED lamp functional test requirements: 6000h lamp survival rate and lumen maintenance rate; number of switching before failure; startup time; 95% lumen rise time; premature failure rate; color rendering index; color tolerance (for color consistency requirements ); Power Factor PF. However, at present, EU ERP does not require LED flash frequency;

  Product information signs and energy efficiency labeling requirements: indicate luminous flux, nominal life, color temperature, etc.

 In LED product testing, in addition to common mandatory requirements for electrical, energy efficiency, electromagnetic compatibility testing, etc., regardless of the EU or North American market, more and more buyers attach importance to some voluntary certification certificates and performance testing of LED lighting products, such as the GS recognized by the European market. Certificates, DLC (Design Lights Consortium), Lightning Facts test and certification listing. In addition, the special optical characteristics of certain LED products are increasingly valued by buyers, such as strobe verification, spectral measurement, color consistency, and color rendering index CRI, LED aging test, energy conversion efficiency, and full luminous flux Performance requirements such as viewing angle range. Therefore, in the face of fierce competition in Europe and the United States market, in addition to compliance with mandatory certification testing, the additional performance often makes its products easier to stand out in many similar products.