UL508A certification

H

Hpram

Member
Location
Houston Texas
Occupation
Engineer
Hey,

We are currently working through a new build in which we plan to have certified to UL508A.
I have almost completed my MTR for this.

What is involved in getting out electrical enclosure certified? what is recommended for documentation etc?
 
First you pay UL and they let you join the program.

Then they come out quarterly and inspect at least one ICP you have made. You pay for this inspection along with an annual fee.

Then you can apply a ul sticker to ICPs. You pay for each sticker.

If during an inspection they find something they don't like they fine you.

There is no special documentation other than keeping track of where the stickers they sold you went.
 
petersonra said:
First you pay UL and they let you join the program.

Then they come out quarterly and inspect at least one ICP you have made. You pay for this inspection along with an annual fee.

Then you can apply a ul sticker to ICPs. You pay for each sticker.

If during an inspection they find something they don't like they fine you.

There is no special documentation other than keeping track of where the stickers they sold you went.
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Do they no longer require documentation of your “procedure” that lists all of the components you use?

Also, it used to be that to attain your certification, they have to inspect a panel that you build. So the tricky part of that was always finding a customer that could wait for any potential delays due to scheduling with UL and any re-dos if they find something (and they always found something). But it’s now been over 30 years since I went through it, so things may have changed.
 
Jraef said:
Do they no longer require documentation of your “procedure” that lists all of the components you use?
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This has never been a requirement. They provide a procedure called UL508a that tells you what you are by default allowed to do and what parts can be used. The current list of default parts is actually no longer physically part of the standard but is on their web site. Anyone can now petition to have parts added at no cost.

You can also add to this default procedure things you want to do or parts you want to use that are not allowed to anyone else. This you have to pay for,

Jraef said:
Also, it used to be that to attain your certification, they have to inspect a panel that you build. So the tricky part of that was always finding a customer that could wait for any potential delays due to scheduling with UL and any re-dos if they find something (and they always found something). But it’s now been over 30 years since I went through it, so things may have changed.
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I think it is at least two in the first quarter and at least one per quarter after that, but there is no requirement that it be of any special kind. You could conceivably build a couple cheap sample panels to satisfy this requirement and assign the labels to yourself. We have not had much trouble scheduling these inspection visits.
 
Isn’t UL a for profit company now?
I used to see a lot ETL listed panels that were built to UL508A.For field inspections ETL was less expensive. ETL is now under a different company.
 
Is this a one of a kind project? If so, maybe just get the finished product evaluated and labeled by a NRTL. However if this will be ongoing, you probably should get set up as a listed panel builder.
 
don_resqcapt19 said:
Is this a one of a kind project? If so, maybe just get the finished product evaluated and labeled by a NRTL. However if this will be ongoing, you probably should get set up as a listed panel builder.
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We are an OEM. This panel is for our most common machine. It will be built exactly the same maybe 2-3 times a month.
 
Thank you all for your response's.
They have been helpful.

Just a couple things:
We are a UL508A panel shop with one MTR person.
I am the new leading electrical engineer. My qualification is from a different country where UL is not a thing ( CE,IEC ISO).
Why the shop has a UL MTR but does not build to UL508A ( or has never) is unknown. I think they thought they needed it and that was enough.
They have built C1D1 enclosures but to my understanding that does not fall under UL508A as per supplement SA.

We sell machines all around the USA. While we have never had a request for UL its likely it could occur(to my understanding).
We also have our own ICP builders so its not economical to sub out our work.
We are very capable of building high quality enclosures.

We will have the first panel built to UL508A in September.
I will keep this thread posted on how we get on and any technical issue we had.

Thank you!
 
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