How do I become UL certified? 1

[ronjon400]

How do I become certified to build custom industrial control panels under a UL certification that allows me to label and list individual panels without submitting them to UL for testing?

 

[alexit]

The process I am familiar with involves UL inspectors visiting your plant periodically (now, 6mos, 6mos, 1 yr, 1yr, 1 yr, 5yr or such) and you submitting control panels for testing with each version (not revision) you want to mark UL or RU. There is also some training necessary and documentation reviews they require. In the case I was involved with, the plant was already ISO9000 and they really only needed one model series UL so it was more or less straight forward.

Alex

 

[buzzp]

Visit UL's web site and they have a good discussion of this.

http://www.ul.com

 

[ccaserta]

The accreditation is to standard UL 508A. Several companies provide this approval. Search OSHA web site for NRTL and it will list all Agencies that can provide the UL 508A acccreditation.

Christopher Caserta
ccaserta@us.tuv.com
Ph:904-225-0360

 

[Kiljoy]

Our company self certifies UL 508. After initial fees and testing, we are able to put the stickers in our machine's panels. We started that in the 70's, so I'm not sure what the initial procedures were, but I know we had to submit lists of parts.
Currently we pay an annual fee (based on how many files you hold). Then we pay a fee every time the inspector shows up for the quarterly inspection. He checks to make sure all of your components have the UL mark on them and charges you several hundred dollars for it.
To add insult to injury, we pay a fee for the stickers themselves. Apparently, charging over $100 for stickers wasn't enough, they decided to add a new $25 "handling fee".
Personally, I feel it's a racket. However, it is unavoidable, since most (if not all) electrical inspectors in the States require it. The sad part is, UL 508 code just reiterates what is already in the NEC code book. All of your parts must be UL certified or UL recognized. Which in turn charged that manufacturer for having a UL mark.

 

[buzzp]

UL508 and the NEC are quite different in my opinion. NEC does not address any off the shelf components such as enclosures mounted on a panel. They do not address flame testing of such an enclosure. They are mainly concerned with protection of the overall installation. UL concerns itself with component level items found in an installation. UL508A, I am not that familiar with but maybe that standard is similar to the NEC but UL508 is definately not.

I believe that UL charges are getting outrageous but so is every other safety agency charges. It does not excuse it but it is unfair to single them out. Although, I can relate to the frustration in dealing with UL.

 

[Kiljoy]

Perhaps a bit of frustration came out in that post... Anyway, we use the UL508A standard for industrial control panels. It is a useful source, but when it comes to things such as wire sizing, motor overload sizing, and control transformer sizing/protection, it has basically the same information as NFPA 79 and NEC sections 430 and 450. It does cover warning signs and labling, which the others do not.
We recently shipped a machine to Canada, where the inspector refused to recognize the cUL symbol on our sticker. This happens to us once and a while, but the Canadians will usually accept the UL and cUL stickers. See:

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?SQID=88734&SPID=238&newpid=238&page=1

 

[buzzp]

Yes I agree CSA and UL need to start working with there inspectors to get them all on the same page with the corporate thinking. They also need to TRAIN them. Some of these guys/gals are truely clueless.

 

[Kiljoy]

I had an argument with my UL inspector that we had to DERATE our Nema 12 panels to Nema 4 because of the switch ratings (IP67/NEMA 4). But that's another topic all together...