Helbling offers testing environment for electromagnetic compatibility

The Zurich-based engineering and consulting firm Helbling offers clients a testing environment for optimizing electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) in consumer, business-to-business, medical, and industrial products. This means that Helbling can work with clients to address the dynamic environment of product development more efficiently than external accredited, cost-intensive testing laboratories, according to a technical article. Such laboratories must nonetheless be consulted at the end of the process for formal verification of conformity to standards.

In the case of a client facing supply shortages during the Corona pandemic, Helbling's EMC testing capabilities enabled the rapid verification of alternative components. For example, the client required a different display for a professional beverage preparation device. The technical article explains that displays are critical components because their electromagnetic radiation accounts for a large proportion of a machine's interference level.

Helbling's team first selected three displays based on technical data. The developers then measured each one individually in an anechoic chamber. All three devices exhibited a pronounced peak at 300 megahertz. Helbling's experts also tested the behavior of the screens in the machine housing itself. This test showed that a new peak was achieved at 500 megahertz, meaning that the radiation behavior of an assembly changes when installed. The developers were able to recognize the risk of "being close to the normative limit, which could lead to non-standard conformity in a subsequent external measurement".

After optimizing the display, a further measurement showed that the high peaks were sufficiently reduced. This prevented production downtimes at the customer. ce/ko