The IEC and EMC

-- Test & Measurement World, 2/1/2003

Among its other activities, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), based in Geneva Switzerland, has taken a leading role in setting standards and testing criteria for both emissions and immunity (Ref. A). To meet the needs of governments and manufacturers, the IEC works with two groups that deal exclusively with EMC issues: Technical Committee 77 (TC77) and the Comité International Special de Perturbations Radioelectrique (CISPR). The latter group also goes by the name International Special Committee on Radio Interference.
  The IEC established TC77 and later brought under its wing CISPR, an organization started jointly by several international groups in 1934. Unlike the normal IEC technical committees, the CISPR enjoys a broad membership drawn from groups that include the amateur-radio community, the automotive industry, and the electrical-distribution industry.
  These two groups divide their responsibilities such that TC77 handles general EMC issues, including the protection of power-transmission equipment. CISPR aims to establish standards that lead to protection of radio-transmission and reception equipment, domestic appliances, and information-technology equipment (computers). You can find complete lists of subcommittees, working groups, and project teams on the IEC Web site.
  To further complicate the structure, the IEC’s Standardization Management Board oversees the Advisory Committee of Electromagnetic Compatibility (ACEC), which coordinates the EMC-related activities of the TC77 and the CISPR with other technical committees that may lack an EMC expert. Both TC77 and CISPR have relationships with international organizations such as ISO and ITU, and with national and professional groups such as the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) and professional societies such as the IEEE. Both TC77 and CISPR also work with other IEC technical committees, such as TC62, which oversees the standards for medical electronic equipment.
  The IEC committees and subcommittees do the main work on EMC, and they produce basic, generic, and product-family standards. The basic standards establish measurement details for EMC tests, the generic standards specify the EMC limits established for industrial and nonindustrial electrical environments, and the product-family standards set EMC standards for specific types of products. TC77 produces most of the basic standards. (You can find a complete list of these documents at the IEC Web site: www.iec.ch.) T&MW

Reference
A. “What EMC is,” IEC, Geneva, Switzerland, www.iec.ch/zone/emc/whatis.htm.