Yes, I have had China Customs open a shipment of 10 powered speakers and find one power cord was not from an approved manufacture on our critical components list. We were short one cord set so I had used an engineering sample… Had right plug and cordage, just not on our products components list. Customs returned the shipment to USA as non compliant.
Chuck From: Ralph McDiarmid <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, August 11, 2023 6:01 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [PSES] Friday Question - Line Cords in China [THIS EMAIL IS FROM AN EXTERNAL SENDER] How would the customs folks in those countries check appliance line cords ? Do they open boxes, pull contents, and inspect? If the USA plug is not rated for higher voltage, does it really present a hazard ? (compliance vs safety) The USA/Canadian plugs have a LOTS of creepage distance between conductors. From: Douglas Powell <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Sent: Friday, August 11, 2023 7:00 AM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: [PSES] Friday Question - Line Cords in China All, I was talking with a client recently about shipping line cords to various countries around the world and how some do not allow the incorrect cords within a shipment while others do. Brazil, as far as I know, does not permit incorrect cordage. Argentina, Australia, and China (PRC) are all mutually exclusive. South Africa and India are mutually exclusive. Japan, Taiwan, and the United States are all mutually exclusive. If not prohibited, it is frequently cheaper to include multiple cords rather than create multiple regional SKUs when products are in low-volume production. That said, apparently the China market often likes to use US-style receptacles (types A or B), even though they use 220 V (😬). The US-style plug has better density (twice as many receptacles in the same space as the China receptacle (Type C, or I ?), and with the US receptacles, there are many more aftermarket cable options available. So I suppose that's my question: "Is this usage typical in China?" Of course, the big issue is that the US plug is not rated for the higher voltages, even though historically some people may say it works. I even fouind a website that shows this, https://www.travelchinaguide.com/essential/electricity.htm I believe it is critical for manufacturers to not condone the use of the US plug in this manner, which appears to be common practice. And I usually advise that this type of usage should never be described, recommended, or mentioned in any manuals, brochures, or other written material produced by a company, either externally or internally. If anyone is injured and an investigation reveals agreement with this usage, the company may be held liable. Thoughts?? -Doug Douglas E Powell Laporte, Colorado, USA [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> LinkedIn<https://www.linkedin.com/in/coloradocomplianceguy/> (UTC-06:00, US-MDT) ________________________________ This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. 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