Abbreviation EMCIA Legal status Private company | Type Trade association | |
Formation March 20, 2002; 14 years ago (2002-03-20) Purpose Electromagnetic compatibility in the UK Location Eddystone Court, De Lank Lane, St Breward, Bodmin, Cornwall PL30 4NQ | ||
The Electromagnetic Compatibility Industry Association (EMCIA) is the trade association for companies involved in electromagnetic compatibility in the UK. It was formed in March 2002. It is based in Cornwall.
Contents
Electromagnetic compatibility is increasingly important, especially for defence manufacturers such as BAE Systems and for medical applications. The members of the trade organisation are involved in reducing electromagnetic interference (EMI) from electronic equipment.
Members include:
It publishes the industry journal, The EMC Journal. It holds the EMC UK conference each year. It offers training for the EMC industry at the EMC Academy.
EMC directive
On 1 January 1996 the European Directive No. 89/336/EEC (known as the EMC Directive) came into force from the European Union. This meant that all electronic equipment sold had to be tested to make sure it did not emit excessive electromagnetic interference. If the product passed the test it was issued with the CE mark. Trading Standards officers could fine a company £5,000 that did not have a CE mark on an electronic product. The CE mark was originally going to be needed for electronic equipment from January 1992, and from January 1993 the DTI spent £450,000 informing companies about the change in legislation, spending another £100,000 after January 1996. The legislation was passed in early 1992.
The European legislation is now implemented by the UK's Electromagnetic Compatibility Regulations 2006.
Broadband
In October 2009 the Association submitted a report to the UK parliament about the effects of power line communication as a method for broadband technology. Other technologies of broadband such as wireless broadband can cause electromagnetic interference.