Notes from the Secretariat

Welcome to the Spring 2020 EPSMA newsletter. We just had our 2020 quarter 1 Management Committee meeting at Delta offices in Schiphol The Netherlands. We had good attendance despite travel restrictions starting due to the corona virus. Hopefully our next meeting at PCIM in May will not be affected. Members can see the full meeting minutes and slides in the members’ area of the website. Contact the secretariat if you need your log-in credentials resent

Q1 2020 MC meeting

The AGM was attended by 9 MC members, with four others joining by phone.

Paul Lee, for the secretariat, gave members an update on membership numbers, website developments, Brexit implications and EPSMA finance.

A poll had been circulated to members on service levels provided by UL. The results are in the members’ area of the website. There was dissatisfaction expressed by many members about the access to the US market being limited by UL non-acceptance of other country’s certifications through National Recognised Test Laboratories (NRTLs). The EPSMA is considering an approach to UL to query why this is so.

The meeting discussed the status of the EPSMA as a CENELEC liaison organisation. There have been communication problems with CENELEC and the relevant technical committee so Paul Lee took an action to approach them more directly. This is to try to achieve closer liaison between the EPSMA and the CENELEC committee.

Hannes Schachenmayr of Vicor gave an interesting presentation relating to the changing trends in procurement of power products in Europe. Manufacturers are being involved later in the process than previously giving less opportunity to present value of products offered.

Paul Conway reported on the work of the Technical Committee detailed below.

The next MC meeting will be at the PCIM show in Nuremberg May 5th at 11am in a meeting room to be advised.

Technical Committee report

The technical committee comprises 16 EPSMA member companies from seven countries and is regularly attended by guests. Presentations are given by members on current power topics. The TC maintains flowcharts to assist compliance with WEEE and RoHS directives. Updates had been recently posted.

Paul Conway, TC chairman gave a summary of TC activities and progress with the recently agreed TC projects:

1. Guidelines to lifetime prediction for power supplies:

The work is about 50% complete with a draft of the complete document scheduled for circulation by the end of Q1 2020.

2. Embedded software validation in power supplies:

More team members are being gathered to work on this document. It is hoped that a draft will be ready for review by the end of Q1 2020.

The TC has maintained two databases:

General Requirement of Energy Efficiency for External Power Supplies

Energy Efficiency Standards for Battery Charging Systems

There was discussion about the usefulness of these to members. This is to be reviewed.

The next TC meeting will be at Siemens offices in Nuremberg 4th May 2020

Linkedin

We have a ’Linkedin’ forum for members to use and a database of UL non-conformances for members to log their observations. Contact the secretariat for more details.

CE Marking Issues forum

Remember we have a forum for issues members have with “CE” marking. If you would like to share problems (and resolutions!) With other members, please contact the secretariat with details.