Manufacturers of many product types selling into India, need their power supplies to be BIS certified. Many of these OEMs can’t get BIS approval for their products because the system power supplies are not BIS approved. In these cases, the power supply must be registered as a BIS component before the end system can receive its BIS approval. BIS requirements on power supplies/adaptors can be confusing to say the least. The following issues play a role in BIS certification strategies:
When do Power Supplies Require BIS?
The answer is: It depends. The following factors come into play:
- Type of power supply (e.g., external brick, hot swappable, etc.),
- Will it be shipped to India independently or only as part of an end system?
- BIS category of the end product. g., Information Technology (IT), Audio Video (AV), or Household (HH)
The following table will help to identify what situations require power supplies to have BIS:
| Power Supply Type | Brick/Adaptor (external) | Hot Swappable (internal) | Open Frame (internal)## | Enclosed, e.g. ATX (internal and fixed) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shipped Independently | Yes* | Yes | No | Yes |
| Shipped as Part of IT System | Yes** | Yes | No | No# |
| Shipped as Part of AV System | Yes** | N/A | No | No# |
| Shipped as Part of HH System | Yes** | N/A | No | No# |
* Brick supplies can be approved to the Indian Standard for IT, AV, or HH equipment. If shipped independently the brick supply must be BIS registered under one of these categories
** When tested as part of a product, the brick supply must be registered under the same category as the product.
# Approval to IEC standards is required.
## Open Frame Power supplies are not covered under BIS
What are the BIS Requirements?
The BIS process is illustrated below for a new grant/registration:
Note: Times in the above illustration are approximate and subject to change
BIS is unlike any other major certification scheme in the world. Certifications are not issued per model or family, instead a registration number is assigned to a brand owner for each product category and each factory. Model types are then included under the registration. Most brand owners have just one factory registered for BIS. If they are making product types of different categories or in this case the same brick power supply for different end product categories, each category requires a separate registration even though the factory is the same and the product is the same.
Representative Requirement
An Authorized Indian Representative (AIR) must be established in India for BIS registration. This entity represents the brand owner’s registered products in India. If the factory or brand has a representative office in India, this office must take the responsibility of AIR. If there is no existing representation in India, another legal entity within India can be nominated as the AIR.
Testing Requirement
A BIS testing laboratory in India must be chosen by the manufacturer or their representative to evaluate and test the products to be registered under BIS. The test lab is mainly responsible for determining the category of the product in question as well as determining family models that can be included in a report, allowing limited testing of representative models. As a result, this can be an important decision factor in the registration process.
Surveillance Requirement
BIS registration does not currently require factory inspections, but market surveillance of products may be required. An applicant has a limited period to respond to a BIS request for product surveillance. This request is issued to the factory and/or AIR. As such these two entities, particularly the AIR, should be competent in identifying such a request and relaying it to the applicable parties.
Renewal Requirement
Registrations must be renewed once every two years. This is generally a paperwork process involving documents signed/stamped by the factory, local representative (AIR), etc. These will then be upload to the BIS portal.
Strategies for BIS Registration
Minimalist Approach
Registrations are assigned to factories. As a result the initial grant/registration process requires a lot of documentation from the factory. New registrations also require an Authorized Indian Representative (AIR) third party in India to represent the brand owner as discussed above. The factory and AIR portions of the grant process are in addition to the sample testing and certification of the first products to be included in the registration. Because of this, establishing an R-number requires a significant amount of leg work and cooperation from multiple parties.
Once a registration number has been established for a specific product category type, adding new models to that registration (called an inclusion) focuses more on the product testing. The inclusion process requires less time and internal resources once the initial grant has been established. Based on this structure, we recommend a strategy of establishing a registration number with a minimum number of product models. This way the initial registration can focus on the factory/AIR requirements without getting bogged down by the testing and evaluation of many model types.
Grouping Strategy
Another strategy is to group power supplies into families based on similarities. The maximum number of models that can be included in a family series is 10. The number of areas in which similarities are required vary depending on the type of power supply. The following are some common characteristics on which family similarities are determined:
- Input/output voltage ratings
- PCB layout and transformer
- Enclosure size/layout
The benefit of having a family series is that one sample can generally be tested to represent the whole series. This reduces the number of samples required for testing and the overall cost of certification.
Getting Started:
Get Pricing
First get quotes from certification companies to get an idea of pricing. Since there are multiple steps in the BIS process, make sure that the proposals received cover all of the aspects anticipated. Some proposals may only cover limited parts of the process. Following the strategies laid out above, work with a lab to determine if family grouping can be leveraged. Based on this information, determine which models are critical to start with. Testing in-country is required in India. BIS does not accept other certifications schemes, so make sure that samples are available to ship for testing.
Designate a Manager
Designate an internal manager to facilitate the registration process, this is where we see the most delays. The registration process requires a significant amount of internal resources. We refer to these tasks as internal homologation responsibilities. The internal process will likely involve input from different personnel in different departments. Having a designated manager to oversee the big picture is critical to the success of the registration. Without one it is easy for the process to be stymied when documentation ends up collecting dust on someone’s desk.
How Can G&M Help?
G&M Compliance is an independent compliance management company. We are not affiliated with Indian test laboratories, nor have any conflicts of interest that could arise from such an affiliation. With the experience of our certification specialists here and in India, we are able assist our customers with every step of the BIS process. Our goal is to make the India BIS experience as painless, efficient, and cost effective as possible.
Feel free to reach out to us for assistance with strategy and pricing information from our Contact Us or RFQ pages, or call @ (714) 628-1020 . We have a dedicated team of certification specialists in the US and India to provide timely and accurate information. For more information on our BIS services, click on our BIS Certification Service page.
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