Electrical product

Certification classification

Depending on the level of risk such as fire or electric shock, products are classified into three categories: Safety Certification, Safety Confirmation, and Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity.

• Safety Certification: Audit + Product testing
• Safety Confirmation: Product testing
• SDoC: Product testing from the designated laboratories or self-test report
  • Test standard shall be KC or CB scheme with IEC standards

Audit

Audit is only applied to Safety Certification.

KC Safety Certification is a factory basis. The audit will be done to the factory. For foreign factories, the CB(certification body) uses the 3rd parties or they will do by themselves for Chinese factories.

This is based on ISO 9001. The factory shall prepare the quality processes and the relative documents.

• Procedures for Inspection and Testing Activities (including import inspection, in-process inspection, final inspection, and self-inspection) and related records
• Inventory of Inspection Equipment, Calibration Certificates, and Functional Inspection Procedures
• Nonconforming Product Control Procedures and associated records
• Customer Complaint Handling Procedures and related records
• Internal Audit Procedures and records related to the quality system for the production process

Scope

Electrical products that operate on AC power of 220V are generally required to obtain one of the following KC certifications: Electrical Safety Certification, Electrical Safety Confirmation, or Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity.

Devices that operate on AC power of 30V or less or DC power of 42V or less are mostly exempt from certification.
However, some low-voltage electrical products may still require certification, so it is important to verify the certification requirements in advance.

• Lists for Electrical products

Exemptions

Cases Eligible for Exemption from Electrical Safety Certification (upon confirmation by the Korea Product Safety Association President)

• Products with limited use and special structures manufactured through custom designs, upon exemption confirmation by the President of the Korea Product Safety Association.
• Products with special purposes (e.g., military supplies) recognized as necessary by the head of a central administrative agency, and confirmed exempt by the President of the Korea Product Safety Association.
• Products supplied to tourist hotels by Korea Tourist Souvenir Center Co., Ltd. in accordance with Article 59 of the Foreign Trade Management Regulation, imported for foreign currency acquisition and sold to foreigners, confirmed exempt by the President of the Korea Product Safety Association.
• One unit per model of a product personally imported for individual use, not intended for sale or rental (excluding products used in multi-user facilities).
• Products intended for industrial use (limited to manufacturing and electricity industries as defined by the Korean Standard Industrial Classification by Statistics Korea) or for other special purposes, confirmed exempt by the President of the Korea Product Safety Association.
• Products imported solely for domestic market research, not for sale or rental, and confirmed exempt by the President of the Korea Product Safety Association.
• Products used directly in international conferences or sporting events, not for sale or rental, and confirmed exempt by the President of the Korea Product Safety Association.
• Products imported for the purpose of obtaining foreign certification, and confirmed exempt by the President of the Korea Product Safety Association.

CB scheme

The only approval certification is CB scheme. Other certificates/test reports such as CE LVD are not usable.

There are three conditions for the CB to be approved.

• Test standard: IEC standard
• Same factory: factory name, factory address, model name etc.
• Rated input: Need to include the Korean environment as 220 V~, 60 ㎐