I have questions about how to bring a product to market and hoping someone here can help me or at least point me in the right direction. I have a working, finalized product using the particle boron chip and I know I will have to send it in to have it FCC certified. Once that is done is when I am at a loss on what else I should or could be doing. For example; do I need a sticker on it that says, “this device might cause cancer in CA”? Do I need any other kind of stickers, manual, or anything else before I sell it to the public? I am just trying to make sure I have everything covered before starting to try and sell this. I might be overthinking this as well and making it more complicated than it needs to be, but I would rather be safe than sorry in the long run.
I have talked to a general business lawyer along with a patent lawyer and neither of them had any idea on what needs to be done before I start to sell it. I am working with someone on getting some liability insurance on the product, so I am covered there.
If anyone has any experience with this, I would love to hear what you have to say about it.
I'll give some general guidance about certification: There are a bunch of different certifications, and assuming you are using the certified Particle antenna, you probably only need FCC unintentional radiator testing (Part 15 Subpart B). The certification house will test your completed assembly to make sure it does not have spurious electromagnetic radiation and issue a SDoc (supplier's declaration of conformity). This is the least expensive and easiest certification to get, and is almost always required.
After that, things depend mainly on your product. If you connect to high voltages (over 90V), you now need things like UL certification. That's one reason why many small electronic devices use external power supplies instead of a cord to an internal power supply now. As a low-voltage only device you can use a UL certified adapter and skip UL for your product.
Then there are things like RoHS to make sure your completed assembly does not contain prohibited substances. This can either be done by taking your BoM and examining each component, or disassembling it and testing each component. There are also tests beyond RoHS for the various chemicals restricted in certain locations like California. If you manufacture in the EU, you would also have to consider REACH, which controls the importation of chemicals used during manufacture.
If you are selling into certain industries, they may also have their own standards and certifications.
Rick,
Thanks for the info! That points me in the right direction as to what I need to do before bringing the product to market. Do you have anyone I can contact for the FCC cert or should I just do a google search?
@Peter5551 Skipping UL certification for low voltage products isn't necessarily true. For example, all modern access control products are low voltage, usually 12-24vdc, and must still comply with UL 294. I'm sure it varies based on the industry you're trying to sell to, but make sure you do your research before skipping UL testing, if it is required and not listed you can incur big fines depending on the jurisdiction. Also, if you do end up needing that certification, keep in mind ETL tests to the exact same standard but the expense on your part is much cheaper.
You are absolutely correct. I should have said UL 62368-1 can often be skipped, but there are thousands of other certifications that could still apply.