How Can i find out the cost of the UL approval ?

[clezo]

I am trying to find out the cost of getting a motion activated switch approved. From what i have found out, UL charges a quite lump sum of $$ for products. Is there a list or site or an office to get some info?

 

[DRWeig]

Clezo,

Go to

http://www.ul.com,

click "clients." On the client screen, there are related links in the lower right side. Click "contact us".

They'll respond with a customer service rep for you, based on your location.

Best to ya,

Old Dave

 

[buzzp]

You have to get a quote. For small industrial control equipment (UL508A) I always figured on roughly $6k-10k US dollars. This was a few years ago and included enclosure testing so in your case I would think it would be less. There are other companies that can approve to UL standards. They might cost a little more in some cases but the turn around time is usually much better.

 

[aamoroso]

CSA (Canadian Standards) is about the same, we are having an Enclosure Certified to CSA 22.2 no94 (equal to UL50) and it's about 5,000. Since we are a first time customer they request it up front, but once we do business with them it would be payments. I am guessing UL is similar.

Alot of it depends on how much testing they would require, if you can prove components of your design are already UL Approved Components then the testing and cost is greatly reduced, as is the time frame.

 

[buzzp]

Sounds like your device is relatively simple and may only require to be UL recognized and not necessarily UL listed.
One word of caution about using UL Recognized parts in your design - UL will still test the complete unit. If you use a certain transformer or something it may pay to have this UL Recognized otherwise additional testing will have to be done just to approve the transformer (really the mfg of said transformer should already have it recognized, if not they might be willing to pay for it depending on quantities). There are not that many parts which require testing on their own, apart from the complete design but transformers, relays, etc are the types of parts which should be UL recognized in the environment and within its electrical ratings before using them in your design. Resistors, normal caps, ICs, regulators and such, are never UL recognized - there is no such thing.

UL Recognized - means this particular part/product has
stipulations in the installation which must be met to be
a UL Listed part/product (like front end fusing)

UL Listed - means the product has no other requirements
for installation in the field to be a UL listed product

One other note is that CSA and UL have a MOU in place where each can test for the other so if you want UL and CSA approval then tell them up front and this will save you some money. Otherwise you get to pay them both seperately and some cases will be paying for the same test twice.