Importing electrical items from outside EU - UKCA etc
Discussion
Wondering if anyone has experience of importing electrical items from e.g. China
Thinking about importing a small qty of lighting items. I have only ever imported non electrical items before so after some advice on what is legally required to check they are safe and certified for UK electrical equipment safety regulations if I chose to resell.
They would be UK mains powered going to a 240v to 12v transformer which is CE/UKCA certified then some LED lights.
Does the finished unit need certifying or if the transformer is certified and stamped with CE/UKCA is this OK? Also does finished lighting unit need to have manufacturer /importer details on or only the transformer?
I think the regulations apply to 50V+, presume that relates to input power rather than output?
Anyone know and happy to share some knowledge or if for example the units need testing can anyone put me in touch with a company that does this?
Just trying to decide if it’s worth the effort e.g. if there is a lot involved as obviously want to ensure the lighting units are safe and comply to regulations which may be more involved than e.g. importing and selling a note pad!
Thanks
Thinking about importing a small qty of lighting items. I have only ever imported non electrical items before so after some advice on what is legally required to check they are safe and certified for UK electrical equipment safety regulations if I chose to resell.
They would be UK mains powered going to a 240v to 12v transformer which is CE/UKCA certified then some LED lights.
Does the finished unit need certifying or if the transformer is certified and stamped with CE/UKCA is this OK? Also does finished lighting unit need to have manufacturer /importer details on or only the transformer?
I think the regulations apply to 50V+, presume that relates to input power rather than output?
Anyone know and happy to share some knowledge or if for example the units need testing can anyone put me in touch with a company that does this?
Just trying to decide if it’s worth the effort e.g. if there is a lot involved as obviously want to ensure the lighting units are safe and comply to regulations which may be more involved than e.g. importing and selling a note pad!
Thanks
I think you would better off finding a friendly consultant such as www.conformance.co.uk or www.cemarkingassociation.co.uk before talking to a test lab who will pull your pants down, test everything whether needed or not and charge a fortune.
Easy to spend money without achieving much.
If you have any samples first thing to check is UK mains plug and make sure that is correct, you see lots of UK plugs that look small, these don't meet the size requirements and ones I have seen are unfused, undersized pins, plastic sleeves on all pins (earth should not have any plastic on it) and are dangerous.
Lastly, labels look simple but they aren't.
Easy to spend money without achieving much.
If you have any samples first thing to check is UK mains plug and make sure that is correct, you see lots of UK plugs that look small, these don't meet the size requirements and ones I have seen are unfused, undersized pins, plastic sleeves on all pins (earth should not have any plastic on it) and are dangerous.
Lastly, labels look simple but they aren't.
Thanks for the link which look really useful. They also seem to run 1-2 day courses which sound like they would cover what I need to know and I’m happy to learn - as you say, I just don’t want to throw money away on test labs and consultants without getting what should be fairly straight forward answers on the regulations.
Spoke to various suppliers in China who have CE/UKCA/ROHS certificates but I’m yet to get straight answers from them about if that means custom products they make can be CE marked or if each item needs testing for example. You just get vague answers like ‘we have lots of UK customers’ - Yes, but are your products compliant to sell on UK market?!
I’ll have a longer read of those sites and give them a call to ask what option is going to be best to get all the info to ensure products are safe and legally compliant. As I’m only looking at limited range of items I hope i will just need to understand a limited amount of regulations as e.g. the components such as power adapter is CE marked already.
Spoke to various suppliers in China who have CE/UKCA/ROHS certificates but I’m yet to get straight answers from them about if that means custom products they make can be CE marked or if each item needs testing for example. You just get vague answers like ‘we have lots of UK customers’ - Yes, but are your products compliant to sell on UK market?!
I’ll have a longer read of those sites and give them a call to ask what option is going to be best to get all the info to ensure products are safe and legally compliant. As I’m only looking at limited range of items I hope i will just need to understand a limited amount of regulations as e.g. the components such as power adapter is CE marked already.
Minefield,
We used to take in properly marked lower priced Chinese equipment (with conformity certificates) but we’d always batch test them. They always had an issue of some description, as we were building them into a larger assembly, we’d take a view on 1) the non conformance didn’t matter in the application we were putting it to, 2) modifications 3) scrap.
We got out of this loop by employing an agent who spent 6 months a year in China and used to work for Kingfisher group, basically he knew where to go and who to trust, usually to source, not to some middleman. China can build things to spec and certify things properly, but they also have an entire industry quite happy to make dangerous or useless items and print off any old spec on the product or the conformity paperwork.
Examples, over and above the obvious crap:
Cable, insulation too thick, conductor too thin, low copper content…..and 88M on a 100M coil
Circuit breaker, any brand and spec printed on the product you want, options included ones that didn’t disconnect (at all) ones that were only switches, and if you were really flush, ones that actually worked, all from the same factory.
Beautifully made limit switch, watertight, solid, good action, but moulded incorrectly so the lever didn’t have enough travel for it to work.
If you’re buying to directly market, I would need the CE/UKCA report, not just the certificate, and you need to make sure what they supply matches what is in the report.
We had no problems once we used the agent, but we were then paying more, eventually we only used a few Chinese products, as the long lead times negated what had become a small saving.
I believe the reason there is so much junk, is that they can’t realistically make good quality stuff and ship it, (plus your fees at port) much more cheaply than anywhere else, whilst we expect it to be half price, it’s our fault really.
We used to take in properly marked lower priced Chinese equipment (with conformity certificates) but we’d always batch test them. They always had an issue of some description, as we were building them into a larger assembly, we’d take a view on 1) the non conformance didn’t matter in the application we were putting it to, 2) modifications 3) scrap.
We got out of this loop by employing an agent who spent 6 months a year in China and used to work for Kingfisher group, basically he knew where to go and who to trust, usually to source, not to some middleman. China can build things to spec and certify things properly, but they also have an entire industry quite happy to make dangerous or useless items and print off any old spec on the product or the conformity paperwork.
Examples, over and above the obvious crap:
Cable, insulation too thick, conductor too thin, low copper content…..and 88M on a 100M coil
Circuit breaker, any brand and spec printed on the product you want, options included ones that didn’t disconnect (at all) ones that were only switches, and if you were really flush, ones that actually worked, all from the same factory.
Beautifully made limit switch, watertight, solid, good action, but moulded incorrectly so the lever didn’t have enough travel for it to work.
If you’re buying to directly market, I would need the CE/UKCA report, not just the certificate, and you need to make sure what they supply matches what is in the report.
We had no problems once we used the agent, but we were then paying more, eventually we only used a few Chinese products, as the long lead times negated what had become a small saving.
I believe the reason there is so much junk, is that they can’t realistically make good quality stuff and ship it, (plus your fees at port) much more cheaply than anywhere else, whilst we expect it to be half price, it’s our fault really.
Thanks for the feedback. If you were happy to share the name of your agent then that may be a useful contact to have in case it’s required. Definitely better to have someone on the ground.
The product I am looking for is pretty straight forward I would say as only a few components (plug, cable, transformer, remote control, cable, LED strip) and I have a sample I have taken to pieces which looks good to me with a few tweaks but may be handy to speak to
someone in the future.
The product I am looking for is pretty straight forward I would say as only a few components (plug, cable, transformer, remote control, cable, LED strip) and I have a sample I have taken to pieces which looks good to me with a few tweaks but may be handy to speak to
someone in the future.
Timja said:
Thanks for the feedback. If you were happy to share the name of your agent then that may be a useful contact to have in case it’s required. Definitely better to have someone on the ground.
I’m no longer associated with that company unfortunately and I don’t have his details.As Rough101 said, you need the test reports not the certificates. UKCA/CE Marking is a self declaration process with some specific exceptions so certs from China mean nothing.
You also need to have some form of waste return scheme, this is not part of UKCA/CE but is a legal requirement, if just selling the uk look for the small producer WEEE scheme on the Environmentt Agency website. If selling into Europe, WEEE is per country and each country has different rules.
As your product is lighting, the EuP may well impact you as well.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Ecodesign...
Other than that, UKCA is starting to wither and die on the vine, several directives are effectively binning the need for UKCA as it is a pain and duplication of an existing system.
You also need to have some form of waste return scheme, this is not part of UKCA/CE but is a legal requirement, if just selling the uk look for the small producer WEEE scheme on the Environmentt Agency website. If selling into Europe, WEEE is per country and each country has different rules.
As your product is lighting, the EuP may well impact you as well.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Ecodesign...
Other than that, UKCA is starting to wither and die on the vine, several directives are effectively binning the need for UKCA as it is a pain and duplication of an existing system.
Edited by FMOB on Tuesday 18th June 12:36
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