When will car manufacturers drop production of combustion engine powered vehicles, and only manufacture electric cars? According to BMW, the magic date for them is 2020. However, this seems unlikely as there are still many hurdles to overcome. Batteries, and the charging of batteries, are two issues which need to be addressed. Lithium Ion batteries […]
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) and the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) have lodged a notification with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) under Article 5.6.2 of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT). The document G/TBT/N/ZAF/220 is available from the WTO website. As a signatory to TBT, South Africa is […]
It is a well-known fact that many new electronics devices becoming available on South African market do not comply with EMC and EMI standards. In many instances standards and regulations cannot keep up with technology developments often resulting in unintended interference consequences affecting radio communication. Some of the current developments include magnetic charging devices of […]
Lightning-protection systems (LPS) for utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) plants have to conform to the SANS/IEC 62305 standard. SMEC South Africa can provide design expertise in this regard to ensure best-practice engineering. The design of the LPS requires an engineer with some specialist knowledge and experience in electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). Although the risk-evaluation matrix of the […]
The SABS technical committee TC73 oversees electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). Its business plan states: “Growing use of the available frequency spectrum for various communication purposes requires increasing control over interference and emissions from all types of equipment.” Available expertise is fragmented and there are insufficient measures to ensure conformance with regulations. The business plan was approved […]
The primary purpose of an uninterruptible or emergency power supply (UPS) is to provide conditioned, continuous power to its load. From the EMC point of view, the UPS is used to correct the power line disturbance problems. The EMC problem in emergency power supplies is a power line disturbance. The common misconception that a […]
Finding, characterising and effectively addressing unintended radiators (EMI/EMC) or RF leakage continues to be a persistent design challenge for groups doing designs involving high speed or high power or high density/complexity with a premium on “real estate”. EMXpert from EMSCAN is a unique magnetic near field scanning system that helps designers be highly productive […]
The influx of low-quality products into the country and the risk this poses to consumers has compelled the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) to review the process of issuing electromagnetic interference/compatibility (EMI/EMC) certificates of compliance (CoCs). The Consumer Protection Act (Act No. 68 of […]
Councillor Nomvuyiso Batyi, acting chairperson of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa and Dr.Boni Mehlomakulu, CEO of the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS), recently signed a memorandum of underrstanding (MoU) that will see the two entities collaborate on ensuring that electronic equipment entering the South African market meets the required quality-performance standards. The influx of […]
Let’s do a comparison of electromagnetic interference (EMI) design and signal integrity. EMI focuses on the associated specifications and testing requirements and interference between neighbouring equipment. Signal integrity addresses the degradation of signal quality to the point where erroneous results occur. But the overlap in design techniques at the board level is considerable. We […]
