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Writer's pictureMekenna

UL Listings and Product Safety: What Are the Benefits & Standard Qualifications?


When it comes to UL certification and standards, understanding the overall benefits and qualifications when designing and manufacturing electrical, fire, and smoke control panels is ideal to citizen safety and applied protocols. Depending on your industry or application, certain standards and qualifications can vary with a wide range of specific listings and respected industry requirements.



While UL product certification can be expensive and time consuming, safety and reliability remain a top priority and can mean the difference between project success and long-term damage. Ensuring your products are UL certified increases legitimacy and can provide reassurance to both customers and the general public.


Introduction:


UL, which stands for Underwriter Laboratories, is a third-party certification company with over a century of experience licensing and certifying products. Prioritizing unity among workers and consumers, UL was founded to set industry standards when innovating new products. With over 14 billion products produced under a UL affiliated seal every year, this common safety organization is a staple in industry-wide safety protocols. UL combines innovative testing and unique listing requirements to promote products that are constructed correctly and utilized safely. UL demonstrates a dedicated promise that such standards will mitigate risk, demonstrate compliance, and deliver confidence in the marketplace. As a result, this ensures that every project is up to the highest standard and has been approved through transparent and contemporary testing.


While UL doesn’t individually test every product themselves, designated manufacturing and testing facilities offer the same assurance when using the UL stamp of approval. In an effort to ensure all products are following guidelines and testing protocols, UL regularly inspects these affiliate manufacturers for extra precaution. As a result of rigorous testing and inspection, having the UL stamp of approval is not only attractive to businesses from a safety standpoint but, can provide a level of product clearance in relationship to industry requirements that cannot be met without one. Not to be confused as the same, UL recognition and UL certification are two opposing classifications that offer individual benefits and product qualifications. Here, we’ll dive deeper into the impacts of facility and product classification and what this means for project success.




What's The Difference Between UL Recognized and UL Certified?


As a comprehensive effort, UL offers several different application standards to a wide range of products and organizations. UL offers facility certification, personal certification, process certification, product certification, and system certification. The biggest difference to note between a UL recognized or listed product and a UL certified product is the manufacturing implication and product application.



UL Recognition is less consumer-facing and primarily focuses on parts and machinery. While these parts and facility practices meet general UL standards, this does not mean that the end product itself is UL certified. UL recognition promotes safety protocols and encourages businesses to adapt more sustainable manufacturing and practices. General requirements can include proper facility storage product component manufacturing classification. Qualifications for recognition are generally easier to obtain with less rigid protocols than that of UL Listed products due to individual component placement and mass assembly manufacturing. UL recognition can be applied to many components and parts internally but does not qualify as a UL Listed product.



Image: Automation Displays Firefighter's Post Fire Purge Panel



Why Buy UL Listed Products?


So, why buy UL Listed products despite potential cost increase and lead time? As a respected and widely recognized organization, UL has over a century of experience and provides a level of safety and contemporary testing that instills trust both businesses and consumers understand. Earning a UL Listed certification is confidence to consumers and competitors. When a consumer is able to clearly recognize an individual product as UL Listed, they feel better about buying and utilizing such product no matter the application. Listing a proprietary or limited business product as UL Listed ensures a level of respected safety and sometimes required industry standards that cannot be fabricated or obtained anywhere else. In relationship to competition and competitor products, being UL Listed can mean the difference between a potential project bid or not.



From a marketing standpoint, advertising products as UL Listed can be a powerful tool to increase business and gain immense respect in relationship to large-scale manufacturing and industry requirements. When it comes to business success, specifically in the electrical control and display panel industry, offering UL Listed products can open doors across a wide application of industry including smoke and fire, building automation, security systems, industrial manufacturing and more. Investing in certified products not only increases business but, also displays a level of public approval from a third-party source that requires a separate level of testing, standard inspection, and innovative safety practices.



Providing UL Listed products illustrates a business’s dedication to consumer safety and product quality. From a business-to-business perspective, UL Listed products also offer another level of safety standards in relationship to insurance, security, and application requirements. For example, in correlation to fire and smoke control panels, insurance companies can deny certain damage claims under non-certified panels if such fire was caused by a circuit breaker of an unlisted product. This prestige not only elevates a business individually but, provides consumer assurance and confidence.  



Conclusion:


As a general business and consumer consensus, the benefits of both UL Recognized and UL Listed products offer a level of unmatched safety and protection you cannot obtain anywhere else. While attaining certification can be costly and time consuming, the overall benefits a UL listing has to offer outweigh any negative outliers while promoting sustainable and innovative product application. From smoke to security, this widely recognized organization is the easiest way to meet industry protocol, increase project success, and promote safety. UL Certifications increase accountability and enhance a brands reputation among competitors, regulators, and consumers.


Ready to experience superior service and unmatched project accommodation?


With over 50 years of industry experience and heritage, Automation Displays, Inc. has been protecting human life and property since its founding with extensive expertise in Smoke Control, Smoke Purge, Mechanical Test and Inspecting Panels designed specifically to work within or in direct conjunction with application protocols and requirements. We offer UL 508, UL 864, UOXX, and UUKL listed panels to provide a level of security and unmatched accommodation like no one else.




As a UL certified manufacturer, Automation Displays offers forever remote technical support and quality testing. A panel from ADi is a panel for life. With both local and global recognition, ADi understands domestic and international jurisdictions to ensure proper industry standards and best practices. Our UL Listed products combine peace of mind with superior products for an unbeatable quality and experience.



Ready to make the switch? Visit us online at www.automationdisplays.com or call 715.843.9595 and speak to a dedicated sales representative today and learn the difference unmatched accommodation and simplicity can make!



 

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Published April 26, 2024


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