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What does 'CE' mean?

S

serzone

Senior member
Well it's not exactly CE, but looks close enough to it graphically. You see this on almost everything electrical - toys, digicams, etc. First I thought it meant made in china or something, but it's got to be something else. If I can find a graphic showing what I mean, I will post. In the meantime, if you know what I'm talking about, please put me out of my misery!
 
I'm sure it's "Certificate European", as far as I can remember it's a European standard but instead of saying "European Certified" or such it's the other way round like other Euro-languages.
 
I believe that CE stands for "Compliance Engineering". It's a certification mark indicating that the product has passed certain safety regulations. It's similar to the UL mark (Underwriters Laboratory). I believe that CE marks are mostly for EU products while UL is mostly used in North America.

Edit: gtd beat me to it. I'm not sure which of us got the acronym right, but the general idea is the same.
 
i think it might be a quality-control verification group/organization. Underwriter's Laboratory and the "UL" symbol are pretty well known, i think the CE mark is sorta the same thing.
 
I believe CE is European Conformity Marking which as an electrical standard is similar to CSA (Canadian Standards Association) and U.L. (Underwriters Laboratories)

Edit: Here we go:
Link
Electrical standards worldwide tend to read like some sort of alphabet soup:

ANSI - American National Standards Institute
AS - Australian Standards
BS - British Standard
CE - European Conformity Marking
CENELEC - European Committe for Electrotechnical Standardization
CSA - Canandian Standards Association
DIN - German Industrial Standards
IEC - International Electrotechnical Commision
ISO - International Standards Organization
JIS - Japanese Industrial Standards
NEMA - National Electrical Manufacturers Association
UL - Underwriter's Laboratories, Inc.
VDE - Association of German Electrical Engineers
 
<laughs>

Well we can't agree at all on what it stands for, but we all agree on what it means: a European mark indicating that the product meets some level of safety certification.

If anyone can find a link, I'd be interested in expanding my (limited) knowledge on the subject.

Edit: Ah, CRV got it. Thanks, CRV.

CE => ECM? That makes perfect sense. 😛
 
I have a feeling this has more than a few meanings! 😛

CE
Communaut&eacute;s Europ&eacute;ennes means nothing else than European Community. This makes clear where these Quality signs are valid. Since January 1st 1996, manufacturers who export their products to the EC or produce them inside the EC are obligated by law to put this mark on their products.

Link

Communaut&eacute;s Europ&eacute;ennes translates to European Communities

Now it makes sense!
 
that was some quick responses!

Here's a link showing a graphics card with the 'CE' symbol on it for anyone still scratching their head!

Seeing it on so many products now makes sense if some of those products wind up in the EEC.

Thanks for your help. This forum is a great resource 😎
 
CE is meant to be perceived as a safety certification standard like UL, CSA, or TUV, only it's much more lax because the standards organization behind it does not require actual samples to be submitted for testing. All the manufacturers have to do is certify that their products meets CE standards, but in many cases I've seen, the product does not, or CE standards must be extremely lax. For example, I've seen CE-certified power supplies with exposed high voltage less than 1/8&quot; behind a metal grill with 1/8&quot; slot openings, and I have a voltage meter rated for 600 volts, but its fuse is rated for only 250V (600V fuses often have anti-explosion shrouds).
 
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