i HATE to argue with unca cece, but are you sure on that? i work for pcec, which stands for philips Consumer Electronics company. . . and in electronics literature, the consumer electronics branch is sometimes referred to as CE. Just a thought. . .
The Magnificant Unca Cece himself expanded on this topic a few moons back in: http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000023.html
The CE mark definitely doesn’t stand for “Consumer Electronics”. Have you ever seen the mark? It isn’t just the letters “CE” or “ce”; it’s very stylized - the C is a half-circle, the E a half-circle with a line for the middle bar.
More importantly, it doesn’t appear only on electronics products. A quick look around our average European house shows that the symbol turns up most often in the five year old’s room - on toys, very few of which have anything remotely electronic about them. It’s also found on the bottles of contact lens cleaning goop in the bathroom, and on a mechanical timer and mechanical kitchen scale.
So whatever it actually stands for, it doesn’t stand for consumer electronics.
The CE mark stands for Communite European or something similar (Language is not one of my strong points) It is a European Community standard like the old British Standards used to be (sob sob no longer are we the rulers of an Empire!)
Hope that clears things up…
The British Standards Institute mark (“kitemark”) is still alive and well, and indicates that the product or service in question fulfills all of the BSI’s requirements.
The CE mark, for “Conformité Europeéne”, is granted to certain types of products that have to meet the requirements specified by one or more of 18 directives, including toy safety, machinery, personal protection equipment, etc. Each directive includes rules created by one or more of the European Standards Bodies: CEN, CENELEC and ETSI. Products in the relevant categories must bear the CE mark if they are to be exported into the European Union.
Often the national institute (Britain’s BSI, Ireland’s NSAI, etc.), which grants its own brands, such as the BSI kitemark, is the national affiliate of CEN and, frequently, ISO too. They all get together and have standards meetings from time to time and draw up new standards and everyone’s happy.
ben
CE [European or Asian] =[equivalent to] Underwriters Laboratory USA.
No, I was actually telling the truth.
The CE Mark actually does stand for “Conformité Europeéne”, and indicates conformity to official standards set by the European Union and qualifications for export thereto. I have no idea why you decided to throw in “Asian”, as the European Union does not yet extend that far.
A UL mark - there are many - is assigned by Underwriters Laboratories to products and components that meet UL’s own standards. UL is a private concern. They also assign an EMC mark to products that meet the US, Japanese, Australian and European standards for electromagnetic compatability; this would include adherence to Directive 89/336/EEC and therefore qualify the product for the CE mark.
A much closer analogy would be between BSI, for example, and UL - both are independent, not-for-profit standards organisations. The BSI kitemark is, like a UL mark, an indication that the product satisfies certain conditions of the independent body. The CE mark certifies that the product passes minimum legal requirements.
ben
Wow, two columns without ant links to the article! JillGat must be taking a vacation!