01.11.06
TUV: tasting success with Tube tests
TUV Product Service provides EMC consultancy, Competent Body and accredited testing for New Communications Systems to be installed at 11 stations. Marcus Brain recently told RTM about the company’s work on the London Underground.
Under its seven-year contract Tube Lines is responsible for the upgrade and maintenance of all tube stations on the JNP lines. In order to provide focus, resource and visibility for this work, Tube Lines has set up the Station Modification and Enhancement Programme (SMEP). SMEP is being carried out in a number phases and Option ‘C’ is the project name given to the modernisation program for stations 12 to 22, i.e. 11 stations in total. It is anticipated that Option ‘C’ will provide the basis for the following phase of work and have the capability to extend to the remainder of the Tube Lines network over the next 6.5 years.
The consultancy activity provided by TUV Product Service under Option ‘C’ involved many packages of work and one package dealt with the compilation of Technical Construction Files in accordance with the requirements of the EU EMC Directive.
This Technical Construction File (TCF) has been prepared in order to describe the New Communications System, as defined in section 3.1.1, installed at the eleven stations under Option ‘C’ and, to describe the process employed to demonstrate conformity with the EMC Directive 89/336/EEC [Ref a)] and the corresponding UK Regulations SI 2005 No. 281 [Ref b)].
Compliance with the EMC Directive is a key requirement in meeting the business objective of LUL CAT1 standard 2-01018-001 A2 [Ref e)]. Some additional EMC requirements contained within document M1027 (5-01018-001) [Ref f)] are covered in station specific Assurance Evidence Files (AEF) and are, therefore, outside the scope of this TCF.
The new communications systems at each of the 11 stations will be based on identical core hardware differing only in terms of size and numbers of equipment employed. Therefore the approach taken has been to identify a ‘Generic Station’ configuration for CCTV, PA etc and base compliance on a corresponding ‘generic’ new communications system. This TCF route to compliance under the EMC Directive is well suited to this approach and obviates the need for EMC testing of the communications system at each of the 11 stations.
About TÜV Product Service Ltd
With over 50 years’ experience, TÜV Product Service is a leading international expert providing testing, certification/qualification and consultancy services to a range of industry sectors covering defence, aerospace, transportation, radio and telecommunications, industrial, IT/Consumer and medical to name but a few. A UKAS accredited testing laboratory (no. 0141) with a proven multi-disciplinary team, TUV Product Service is capable of handling the most demanding projects to the strictest timescales.
The full range of services on offer includes Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC), Environmental (Vibration/Shock, Water Ingress, Highly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT), Climatic, Sand/Dust, Solar Radiation and Packaging Performance), Radio Frequency (RF) and Telecoms, TEMPEST, Nuclear Survivability, Lightning, and Electrical Safety.
TÜV Product Service’s compliance management team also has the knowledge and experience to assist you from the initial generation of ideas all the way through to implementation.
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