The N number next to the C-tick is the ACMA supplier code and only indicates
it complies with EMC standards. These are often confused with the N number
used by the NSW DFT. A battery charger is a decalared item and requires a
safety approval before it can be sold.
The printed rating contains the 120V details and therefore no approval. I
guess the rating detail for the 240V version has the appvl number present.
The use of a string of EMC compliance symbols is pretty standard for a lot
of products and simplifies labelling. The same string is inserted into all
the labelling artwork.
No, most likely the two variants appear on the one compliance test report,
with additional test results for the differences in components. This one
report is then used all over the world to apply (or declare) for approval.
Actually its more common than you might realise. For products like this,
Australia/NZ only buys a comparatively small number oif units, broken into
shipments over a set period. During production faulty units get weeded out
and sometimes if a production run has a high number of failures they need to
"borrow" from another production run to make up numbers. The borrowed units
often have EU type cordsets and incorrect labelling but the correct voltage.
Sometimes, fortunately rarely, the wrong voltage units get picked instead.
Also, for many items there are no spare parts provided. Instead an
additional quantity (typically between 0.5 and 1.5% of the total quantity)
are supplied to cover goods that need to be replaced or to be cannibalised.
If ordered separately from the main shipment they might be picked from
whatever is passing down the line at the time or borrowed as I mentioned
above.
I'm even more curious as to why the 120V US version's got the
Australian 'C-Tick' approval number on it....
For the same reason the Australian unit will probably have the FCC and CE
marks, etc on it. It is probably a common piece of label art. Quite likely
the 120V unit does comply with the ACMA EMC Standards, so technically it is
OK to have the C-tick on it if the 120V variant appears in the importers
copy of the EMC report. The EMC standards don't cover safety and the ACMA
has no ability to enforce it (apart from telecomms equipment).
As Phil said, the internal transformer is marked as fail safe so it would
have most likely gone fzzztttt and either taken out the thermal fuse or the
series fuse. Not as big an issue as it might seem.
However, there have been kettles, toasters and other appliances supplied to
the AU market that have all the right cords, plugs and labells but fitted
with 120V elements. Applicance importers have learnt the hard way to batch
test shipments as they are received , but the electronic goods importers
often just deliver on an indent basis (straight into the distribution
channel) without local batch checking. So these types of products are (at
present) more susceptible to production errors.
These days product conformity, quality assurance and factory inspection
makes up 70% of what I do for a crust.
