UL Industrial Control Panel Certification

[tkb]

Does anyone know what the process is to be able to UL list industrial control panels that I build?
I want to be a UL shop.

 

[petersonra]

buy the UL508a spec so you can see what you are getting into.

call UL sales dept.

pay them the fees they want.

send people to the classes. they are not free either.

pay UL to come out 4 times a year to inspect your work.

I think ETL will allow you to list to UL508a at a lower cost than UL does. I don't know if any other NRTL will list to UL508a but they might.

ETA: Keep in mind UL is both a spec writing organization and an NRTL. Any NRTL that wants to can list to UL508a - they just have to be willing to commit the resources to do it.

 

[tom baker]

UL is a for profit company. ETL and others will be less expensive to use there listing procedure

 

[tkb]

I am thinking of doing some panel building as a side job going into retirement.

 

[Jraef]

Last time I did this for myself (in 1991) it cost me $20k. In about 2006 I helped someone else do it, he said it was under $10k all total. I think the cost went down as a response to pressure from Intek (ETL). It may have gone down more since then, I don't know, but it's still a fairly big financial commitment for a part-time retirement endeavor.

Left off of Bob's otherwise accurate description of the process is that in order to get your final listing, you need to build panels for UL to inspect. That means finding a customer willing to pay you to build panels that might not end up listed, and/or wait for them as you schedule an inspection by UL. That's a lot trickier to put together in real life than it sounds on paper.

 

[petersonra]

Last time I did this for myself (in 1991) it cost me $20k. In about 2006 I helped someone else do it, he said it was under $10k all total. I think the cost went down as a response to pressure from Intek (ETL). It may have gone down more since then, I don't know, but it's still a fairly big financial commitment for a part-time retirement endeavor.

Left off of Bob's otherwise accurate description of the process is that in order to get your final listing, you need to build panels for UL to inspect. That means finding a customer willing to pay you to build panels that might not end up listed, and/or wait for them as you schedule an inspection by UL. That's a lot trickier to put together in real life than it sounds on paper.

Most everything we build is to UL508a standards or so close that it can be with minimal extra cost. Its not like the end user is likely to reject a panel that is listed in favor of an unlisted one.