What is UL Certification? One concern when buying modern machinery is the safety of the equipment. No one wants to buy a product that could malfunction and hurt the operator or someone nearby. Because of this concern various organizations have been created to verify the safety of products.
UL is one of the oldest testing agencies in the country and provides certification on the safety of products as well as their environmental claims. However the UL marks may be confusing for people who are not familiar with their terminology. There is no such thing as general UL approval, instead they break up their certification into being listed, recognized, or classified. Once you know the difference between these three terms it becomes much easier to understand the dozens of marks that UL puts on products.
The UL listing service verifies that a manufacturer can make products that fulfill UL requirements, meaning that any product with the UL listed mark is produced by a company that limits product risks that can be reasonably foreseen. UL does not test each product in this case, instead they authorize the manufacturer to test their products and apply the UL listed mark themselves. However, UL does follow up with the manufacturer on a regular basis to make sure they are following correct procedures to test their products.
The UL recognition service is different in that it does not apply to end products. Instead it certifies that a component for a larger product meets UL standards. This mark is not seen as often by consumers, as the parts that get this certification are things like circuit boards and power supplies. These components are normally put into products in factories and may have limited use outside of another machine. Again, UL authorizes the manufacturer to test and label their parts with this mark and follows up regularly to ensure continued compliance with the certification.
UL classification service is the most nuanced of the three. According to UL’s terminology guide, the UL classification service is used “for the purpose of classification or evaluation with respect to one or more of the following: (1) specific risks only, e.g., casualty, fire or shock, (2) performance under specified conditions, (3) regulatory codes, (4) other standards, including international standards, or (5) such other conditions as UL may consider desirable.” This allows UL to have a wide array of marks in this area to give specific information to consumers about the standards of a product. For instance, the UL Classified Water Quality Mark certifies that a product is able to provide suitable drinking water for products such as filtration systems or water treatment additives.
UL is not the only company to provide safety certification. Are there any other safety ratings systems that you’d like to know more about? Tell us below if there are any other certification marks that you’d like us to explore!
About Arista
Founded in 1994 and headquartered in Fremont, CA, with operations in China, India and Taiwan. Arista Corporation is committed to the highest standards of product development, engineering, manufacturing and customer support. Our extensive product portfolio includes Industrial Panel PCs, Industrial Monitors, Box PCs & Fanless Embedded Computers, Rack Mount Computers, ACP ThinManager Ready Thin Clients, Embedded CPU Boards and Video Extender/Switches.
Market Focus
We provide off-the-shelf, full turnkey integration services, and custom ODM/OEM design and development services for the Industrial Automation, Food & Beverage, Pharmaceutical, Oil & Gas, Waste Water Management, and Control Room marketplaces. Our ODM/OEM capabilities help our customers meet exacting specifications and requirements at an affordable price and quick time to market in harsh operating environments.
Manufacturing & Support Capabilities
All of our products are assembled and tested in our ISO 9001: 2008 facility in Fremont, CA, undergoing stringent quality oversight enabling Arista Corporation to provide a two (2) year depot warranty for all computer products and three (3) year depot warranty for all display products. We work on the embedded long roadmap enabling 5+ years continuity of supply and support, complemented by a comprehensive stringent revision control process.
RoHS Compliance
The European Union adopted Directive 2002/95/EC in February 2003 that restricts and prohibits the use of heavy metals (lead, mercury, cadmium, and hexavalent chromium), polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) in new electrical and electronic equipment shipped after July 1, 2006. All new products under development at Arista Corporation meet the directive’s requirements.
Conflict Minerals Sourcing Policy
Conflict minerals (columbite-tantalite, cassiterite, wolframite and gold, or their derivatives, including tantalum, tin and tungsten) originating from Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are sometimes mined and sold by armed groups to finance conflict characterized by extreme levels of violence. Some of these minerals and the metals created from them can make their way into the supply chains of the products used around the world, including those in the electronics industry.
It is the policy of Arista to avoid Conflict Minerals that directly or indirectly finance or benefit armed groups in conflict affected regions. Arista is committed to sourcing components and materials from companies that share our values around human rights, ethics and environmental responsibility.
Arista expects its suppliers to commit to the EICC Code of Conduct which includes a provision related to the responsible sourcing of minerals. Pursuant to that Code of Conduct, suppliers must have a policy to reasonably assure that tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold in the products they manufacture are DRC conflict free. Arista will immediately discontinue engagement with suppliers who pose any risk supporting conflict minerals.
Our Core Values
In a continuous pursuit of excellence, our core values include Innovation, Reliability, Agility, Integrity and Trust. ‘Talk to us. We listen.’ We listen to our customers. We then apply creativity, technology, engineering and manufacturing expertise to provide the optimum solution. We listen so we can continuously improve our products, processes and services. We listen because our objective is to work in partnership with our customers to establish a long term successful relationship…