Strange Prices

I doubt that distributors check their suppliers' paperwork for compliance of products with all the standards and certifications being claimed --- that would be worthy of a film halfway between Blazing Saddles and Brazil.

But they definitely do have departments dedicated to engineering regulations, and they do provide relevant advice to designers as a service.  The products they sell are probably just assumed to comply with whatever standards they claim though, as anything stronger would be extremely hard and costly to accomplish.

That would certainly explain why your questions about issues like certification never get answered.

Answering certification questions shouldn't depend at all on the contractual manufacturing details.

The RPi "Safety Data Sheet" published by E14 and also by RS clearly shows "Class A" testing. 

What seems to be hard to explain is how you can sell a device with a Class A certificate to

Class B (residential) customers.

I doubt that distributors check their suppliers' paperwork for compliance of products with all the standards and certifications being claimed --- that would be worthy of a film halfway between Blazing Saddles and Brazil.

Yes, I think they do.  The distributors made a big stink at launch time about how picky they were

in not selling any products until the compliance paperwork was in order, much to the dismay of RPF

who intended to wait until the cased educational version was released before doing any EMC testing.

I was also intrigued at the bit mentioned by the RPF that importing the components to the UK means you pay more duty than importing the assembled item. With that sort of thing in play, the economics are likely to be a lot more complex than simply the cost of running the line.

I think that claim was pretty much debunked, and no figures were ever released to back it up.

I do remember that particular duty legislation coming in and I do remember it been proported as a method of saving jobs ..(double speak if ever there was )

How ever I don't know if it was ever repealed  as far as I know it's still in place!

see for example this slashdot discussion, for whatever it's worth:

http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/04/14/1728249/raspberry-pi-production-heats-up-in-uk-surpassing-chinese-production-soon

Except that the Raspberry Pi foundation have never been able to point to any of these so-called duties. A question was asked in parliament and the minister replied that nobody in his department had any idea what they were talking about. Bear in mind that the Raspberry Pi foundation is run by engineers and programmers, not by people with a background in navigating import procedures.

A quick search of the UK trade tariff [www.gov.uk] shows that there is no tariff on these sorts of components from any country. VAT applies, but will be the same amount for non-EU imports, EU 'acquisitions' (the technical term for imports within the common market) or UK purchases and only the administration differs. If you set the date back a year or look at other types of ICs you get the same result - no tariff.

Certainly whatever import duties there may be have not been sufficient to deter the Sony UK production.

I'm glad but as you say this was a device which was specifically demonstrating UK credentials so really the RPI been made predominantly in the UK should really be a given.

Another 100+ other devices like this and we may have an electronics industry... Either way we should be thankful for what we get

John Alexander wrote:

 

Another 100+ other devices like this and we may have an electronics industry...

And if our government were, you know, insightful, they might even realize that the people who actually make things in the country (as opposed to those who just profit from them) would like nothing more than to do so.  Unfortunately this would require a commercial environment in which domestic manufacturing is encouraged, the exact opposite of where we are today.  I'd settle for the lesser goal of government simply being not clueless, but even that is probably too ambitious a target.

Just imagine if we had a strong domestic electronics industry, and USA in their headlong rush to outsource all manufacturing until there are only lawyers employed there came to us for it, an immediately attractive location for them because of commonality of language.  One can dream ...

It's a pity that having ambitious dreams for your country is a dismissable offense in post-2k western politics.

Yes,you are repeatedly punished in the UK for been innovative doing stuff here is too complicated and expensive unless you are one of the big boys to carry that over head by which time you are manufacturing in China  etc etc.

The horrible fact is that we need some kind of manufacturing industry because in reality 80+ % of people are just average not super duper brain surgeons/rocket scientists/engineers etc.

There's no realistric way a country can be self supporting with out involving that 80+% and at the moment that involves some form of manufacture.

I think the problem is that politicians don't make things, and therefore cannot distinguish the different effects of 1) making something and 2) having that something made for you.  After all, you obtain the same something in both cases, don't you?

Alas, as engineers know very well, when you make a thing yourself you gain vastly more than just the end product.  You acquire understanding and insight, and you learn enormous amounts from your failures, and you gain confidence and inspiration for the next generation.  As a result, those who make things are destined to advance rapidly in capability, and that's an exponentially cumulative effect.  Conversely, those who get things made for them are destined to lose the lead in technology and become dependents.

This reality must escape government entirely, otherwise they would act on it and strongly encourage domestic manufacturing and discourage contracting out work abroad.  Because of their miscomprehension they support and encourage domestic businesses that contract out their manufacturing abroad, because they think that profit is an equal indicator of success.  It's not, it's an indicator of impending doom.  The end result of this failure is predictable.

This reality must escape government entirely, otherwise they would act on it and strongly encourage domestic manufacturing and discourage contracting out work abroad.

I don't think there is a simple known solution.  If company A is located in a high-wage country, selling products

that compete on the market with those from company B located in a low-wage country, then company A will likely

have a hard time matching the price of company B's products unless it outsources (labor intensive) manufacturing,

and may risk going out of business entirely.  So in order to save the high-wage design jobs at company A,

the government wouldn't want to discourage oursourcing of low-wage manufacturing jobs. 

If you try to use import duties to discourage the import of products from company B, you find your manufacturing

companies complaining about duties on their imported components and subassemblies, and risk losing those

manufacturing jobs.  Or you risk trade wars due to tit-for-tat import duties on your country's exports.