Every product needs testing prior to marketing it. EMC testing is one of the essential tests for products which are subjected to Electromagnetic Compatibility regulations. The neccessaity of EMC testing can be compared at product’s different stages. Products follow several stages to reach end-users. These stages might be grouped into six: Consept, Design, Prototype, Pre-Production, Production and On-site (After Production).

EMC testing is necessary in each stage of the product.
  1. Consept

In Concept stage of product, electromagnetic compatibility shall be one of the topics that the concept  team shall consider. EMC impacts can be listed in this stage to prepare for design stage. Since this stage is the first stage of product’s journey, most of the EMC problems can be considered and solved theoritacally. Costs of EMC testing of the product can be minimized in this stage. Since the testing costs will be minimum in this stage when compared to other stages, thinking on EMC in this stage will save you money. Of course, you have to spend some time on it. However, if consept team has no experience about EMC, this stage is ignored and skipped to design stage. In this case, much more time and cost will be inevitable.

2. Design

During Design stage laboratory tests start. If designer has a EMC testing laboratory facility tests can be performed internally. Otherwise, this service has to be outsourced to external EMC testing labs. In this stage it is not necessary to use accredited EMC testing laboratories since the design is not verified yet. Pre-compliance EMC testing will be enough during design stage of the product. After passing pre-compliance tests, full-compliance tests are preferred. Another essential point is the number of test samples which are tested. In order to verify design in terms of EMC standards, this number may vary between 3 and 10.

3. Prototype

When you realize your design with a prototype, it needs to be tested according to relevant test standards. By performing tests at this stage, you will understand whether your design is compliant with the standards. If you get some fail results, you will have some time to modify your design and prepare a new prototype for retesting. This stage is so critical for product designers to validate their consepts and designs. Before pre-production, you can have tested more than one prototype.

4. Pre-Production

For pre-production stage, number of products will be increased when compared to previous stages. Since you will have more than one sample, you will have chance to understand whole picture in terms of test results. If the number of products is more than five and you get all Pass results your product is assumed to be validated. For this stage, you must choose compliance testing.

5. Production

6. On-site (After Production)