UL
UL LLC is a global safety consulting and certification companyheadquartered in Northbrook, Illinois. It maintains offices in 46 countries.Established in 1894 as the Underwriters' Electrical Bureau (a bureau of theNational Board of Fire Underwriters), it was known throughout the 20th centuryas Underwriters Laboratories and participated in the safety analysis of many ofthat century's new technologies.
UL is one of several companies approved to perform safety testing bythe U.S. federal agency Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).OSHA maintains a list of approved testing laboratories, which are known asNationally Recognized Testing Laboratories.
The inspection of the UL inspector is basically a mechanicaloperation. Depending on the product, the inspector's inspection is based onBulletin, Procedure, FUII, if any, and UL standards.
If the inspector visits the factory and the factory is producing ULproducts or has an inventory of UL products, the inspector will take samples inone of the following ways:
1. Extract parts from the production line plus a complete productextracted from the warehouse.
2. Extract all the components from the warehouse plus the completeproducts on the production line.
3. Extract the entire product from the warehouse for splitting.
The exact number of samples depends on the Rules, FUII (TrackingInspection Instructions), SAP (Standard Page) or direct orders from ULlaboratories. Inspectors do not necessarily inspect all products at eachinspection, but they will try to inspect all product categories or modelswithin a year or at least two years.
Generally speaking, UL is not too demanding on the factoryproduction system, only requires the annual measurement of instruments andequipment, keep the factory's own inspection records, as well as non-conformingproducts have a certain control means.
During inspection, the on-site representative (UL inspector) willconcentrate on the product itself. They will check the structure, componentsand assembly of the product according to the above inspection criteria. Forparts and components involving product safety, the general rules will specifythe requirements for UL certified products, and will indicate the manufacturerand model; for shell, shield and other injection parts, the general rules willspecify their raw materials and size requirements. The on-site representativewill check the UL markings specified in the above and detailed rules.
Factory inspection
For the first factory inspection, the inspector inspects yourproduct and its parts in the production line and warehouse to see if theproduct structure and parts are consistent with the tracking service details,and if the details require, the area inspector will conduct a witness test.When the inspection results meet the requirements, the applicant is authorizedto use the UL logo.
After the first inspection, inspectors will visit the factory fromtime to time to inspect the product structure and conduct eyewitnessexperiments. The frequency of inspections is determined by product type andproduction, and most types of products are inspected at least four times a year(the cost of tracking services is not included in the cost of testing). Theinspector's inspection is to ensure that the product continues to comply withUL requirements. Please notify UL in advance before you plan to change theproduct structure or components. For minor changes, no experiments need to berepeated, and UL can quickly modify the tracking service rules to make suchchanges acceptable to the inspector. When UL considers that productmodifications affect its safety performance, it is necessary to apply to thecompany to resubmit the sample for necessary testing.
