HTDS is your go to third-party testing laboratory for getting your product listed, labeled or certified.
UL Standards

Ul Underwriters Laboratory

Frequently Asked Questions

You need to get your product listed and labeled as quickly as possible, right?  We take out all the issues around learning, laboratory management, scope creep, and waiting time such that you can get your product listed quicker and more easily. We find many startup companies will wait until they have a prototype and then production sample and ship that to the lab hoping it will pass. That is a process fraught with many potential issues and misses. 

Contact us here at High Tech Design Safety and we will take you through the process.

Our involvement in the process does cost more up front. However, typically we find that our efforts return on investment between five and eight times what was spent for our support.

For example, recently we worked with a large client and were able to reduce the scope of the project and include both sides of their system, part A and part B as one system, thereby reducing their total costs by over fifty thousand dollars and accelerating the acceptance of their equipment.

Recently we supported a small startup; and we were able to complete their SEMI S2 work in two weeks by being efficient, accurate, and understanding the process fully.
Just before that project. We were able to reduce the cost for evaluation and testing for CE marking for a sensor manufacture from over fifty thousand dollars to below ten thousand dollars. Additionally, we shorten their timeline from 3 to 4 months to one week.

Many times the large laboratories are just quoting from a schedule, and a pricelist and don’t even bother to understand how complex your equipment is going to be to evaluate. So if you have a very simple system you will be overpaying the laboratory, if you have an extremely complex system; The laboratory will come back to you many times for change of scope and additional money.We help you prevent the money and time to market issues.

That is what we do and since we have been in the industry for many years, we have the relationships that are required to make the process run as efficiently as possible.

By using a third-party test lab like ourselves you can get all these questions answered and get it cleared up on how to get there and get it done. And I kinda think there’s nobody really doing what we’re doing.

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Requirements

UL Standards

UL standards were created with national standards bodies in countries around the world to build a safer, more sustainable world. UL was one of the original standards bodies and one of the first companies at that time. A non-profit organization to develop standards through product safety and prevent fire shock and explosion. UL listing is known almost generically as the listing you need for the United States of America. However, as UL became a for-profit organization and more test labs popped up, there is some confusion about which labs can do your work at this point.  Nowadays there are nineteen labs that can provide you a listing or recognition or certification for your product to the UL standards.

This program generically is known as the nationally recognized test lab program, which is managed by OSHA.

The UL standards have merged with ANSI, the American National Standards Institute, and other industry-specific organizations so that the standards writing can be impartial now that UL is a for-profit organization.

You need a way to get your product listed, labeled, or recognized for the US and global markets and we will seek to find the most expedient process through that loop. Sometimes that process is to skip UL altogether and go with another laboratory. In other cases, it is most imperative to go with UL as that is your best path forward. We can help you to determine which is and get you there more quickly.

Which standards should I get listed to?

This link provides a list of the standards applicable for listing within the United States. Typically, Canada has a partner standard that matches the standards such that getting approval for USA in Canada is fairly easy.

You will find a list of the Canadian standards here.

Also know that UL and other big labs will quote you very short times to certification. Understand that most big labs will take a minimum of 2 to 3 weeks to get you a quote, another 2 to 3 weeks to get you scheduled, and at least 6 to 12 weeks through the process. That is 12 to 18 weeks for the full process to be completed. Yes of course if you already have a quote and you’re already scheduled, then don’t worry about so long as your equipment fully 100% complies yet all the documentation labels background, pretesting details and everything else they need you might actually be able to get your product done in less than six weeks. Just realize that there are a lot of people involved when you go to a big company. It takes a lot longer to get stuff done. Also remember that a lot of the big labs have limited their project managers, so will fall to you or someone on your team to manage the project. Let us take that full load off and get your project done for you in a reasonable amount of time with a known outcome.

Sustainability Standards

UL 106, Standard for Sustainability for Luminaires (under development)

Standards for Electrical and Electronic Products and Standards for Industrial Control Equipment

UL 796, Printed-Wiring Boards
UL 1598, Luminaires
UL 1642, Lithium Batteries
UL 6500, Audio/Video and Musical Instrument Apparatuses for Household, Commercial and Similar General Uses
UL 60065, Audio, Video and Similar Electronic Apparatuses: Safety Requirements
UL 60335-1, Household and Similar Electrical Appliances, Part 1: General Requirements
UL 60335-2-24, Household and Similar Electrical Appliances, Part 2: Particular Requirements for Motor Compressors
UL 60335-2-34, Household and Similar Electrical Appliances, Part 2: Particular Requirements for Motor Compressors
UL 60950, Information Technology Equipment
UL 60950-1, Information Technology Equipment - Safety, Part 1: General Requirements
UL 60950-21, Information Technology Equipment - Safety, Part 21: Remote Power Feeding
UL 60950-22, Information Technology Equipment - Safety, Part 22: Equipment to be Installed Outdoors
UL 60950-23, Information Technology Equipment - Safety, Part 23: Large Data Storage Equipment
UL 61010-1 Electrical Equipment for Measurement, Control, and Laboratory Use; Part 1: General Requirements
UL 508, Industrial Control Equipment
UL 508A, Industrial Control Panels
UL 508C, Power Conversion Equipment
UL 1018  Electric aquarium equipment
UL 1492 Audio-Video Products and Accessories
UL 1598c Outline  Of Investigation for Light-Emitting Diode (Led) Retrofit Luminaire Conversion Kits
UL 1640 Portable Power-Distribution Equipment
UL 2011 Outline  of Investigation for Factory Automation Equipment
UL 2062 Outline Enclosures for Use in Hazardous Classified Locations
UL 2745 Outline Of Investigation for Meter Socket Adapters for Communications Equipment
UL 2747 Outline Of Investigation for Electric Vehicle Power Supplies
UL 3200 Outline Of Investigation for Performance Testing Of Engine and Turbine Generators
UL 4730 Outline Of Investigation for Nameplate, Datasheet, and Sampling Requirements of Photovoltaic Modules
UL 506 Specialty Transformers
UL 508 Industrial Control Equipment
UL 508a Industrial Control Panels
UL 62108 Concentrator Photovoltaic (Cpv) Modules and Assemblies - Design Qualification and Type Approval
UL 696 Electric Toys
UL 697 Toy Transformers

Process

We help walk our clients through the process to design based on the standards that it will be tested to and need to comply with in order to enter your desired market.

Timeline

We can offer a basic timeline to get your product through the process and steps that you can take that will help to expedite the process. Each piece of equipment is different and we can quote your specific equipment.

Cost

$22-30K for most equipment. There are factors that you can anticipate will add to the cost and can be planned for in your budget.

Resources From The Field

Standards

Replacing 60950 with 62368 Implementation Timeline

We are continuing our series on Information Technology Equipment Design Standards. Last video we talked about the primary differences between 60950 and 62368 and in today’s video we talk about the timeline of the phase out. Link to video also available here: https://youtu.be/mHKzm8UZpC0 We had a great comment on the last video from Daniel Mitchell

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High Tech Design Safety Part 2 UL 60950 Standard for Information Technology Equipment
NRTL UL Listing

UL 60950 Part 2 with High Tech Design Safety

Today we’re going to talk more about UL 60950, the standard for information technology equipment. We are going to talk about the standards and designs and how to accelerate your design and obtain rapid approval. In this video presentation Steve gives the outline of the standard with the scope… and this time he shows you

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