Introduction

You may have seen this rating on our website as this is a certification for vehicle warning lights, which covers light bars, beacons and any other sort of warning light on a vehicle. We display this certification on the beacons on our website, to show they meet the requirements for this certification.

What is ECE?

ECE stands for Economic Commission for Europe and Its objective is to establish a standardised set of rules concerning vehicle design. Items that follow ECE regulations are granted an e-Mark. Granting the "e-Mark" to a product enables automotive distributors and manufacturers to freely exchange their products within the European Economic Area (EEA). The display of the "e" mark is mandatory for all approved products.

For approval of a product, all minimum requirements must be met. This approval is a requirement for products used as a warning light on vehicles.

What does an ECE Rating mean?

All of the different ECE ratings mean something different, and there are 7 ECE ratings altogether. Let me explain what they all mean.

What are the different ECE Ratings?

ECE R65

This rating stands as an established standard within the European Union, influencing warning and emergency lighting. It surrounds various attributes of a warning light, including aspects like light pattern, colour, brightness, and frequency. This applies to 360° radiant lights as well as direct warning lights.

The ECE R65 Rating is also divided into Class I and Class II.

ECE R65 Class I

Class I is the standard for night mode, Night mode means that the light has a consistent level of luminosity. Class I approved lights are used on vehicles for danger or warning signals on the lanes and can be deployed by private or public vehicles without government authorisation. For example the Class I lights can be used by highway maintenance vehicles.

ECE R65 Class II

Class II is the standard for day and night mode, the equipment needs to be able to switch between day and night mode in order to meet the requirements. Class II lights have a higher intensity and luminosity, and these lights are intended for the use on emergency vehicles such as police cars, ambulances, firefighters etc.As well as public vehicles with government approval.

ECE R6

This is an EU certification for turning light (directional indicators). This approval, very similar to ECE R65 covers several different characteristics for the warning light like light pattern, colour, brightness, and frequency. As this certification is for turning indicator lights, these are used for a lot of vehicles.

ECE R7

This is the UE certification for brake lights, and again like other certifications like the ECE R65, R6, also covers several characteristics of the warning light for example light pattern, colour, brightness, and frequency. Because this is a certification for brake lights, like the ECE R6 this is used by a lot of vehicles.

ECE R10

Lights that have this certification mean that they hold the ability to work together with other electrical equipment without producing interferences. This is also a known EU standard called EMC, which stands for Electromagnetic Compatibility. Because there are a lot of electronics inside vehicles, this certification can be used anywhere on any sort of vehicle and isn’t tied to a specific vehicle group.

ICAO

This is a standard certification for the use of warning lights and other equipment at airports. The same light characteristics like, colour, brightness, are checked. However the requirements for frequency and light image are different to the other certifications above. Because this certification is specific to airports this can be used on aircraft operation, telecommunications, meteorology, air navigation equipment, ground facilities for air transport, just to name a few.

In conclusion there are alot of different certifications and it can get quite confusing remembering what they all mean, but I hope that this blog helps you understand and makes it a bit easier. Now you can shop our beacons and other related products in confidence, knowing what all the certifications mean.