If you plan to get UL approval for your product, any plastics you use will likely need UL recognition. If the applicable product standard has flammability requirements for plastics, you will need UL recognized materials in your product.
IEC product safety standards also call out similar flame ratings. The UL 94 horizontal and vertical flame tests have essentially been adopted as international standards under IEC 60695-11-10. http://webstore.iec.ch/webstore/webstore.nsf/ArtNum_PK/31023!opendocument This only covers the horizontal and vertical burn tests. The IEC equivalents for 5VA and 5VB are in IEC 60695-11-20. You could have your product tested by a CB Test Laboratory with the plastics evaluated to IEC 60695-11-10. In theory, UL would have to accept this testing to issue a UL approval for your product. However, I don’t think I would recommend trying this approach without a backup plan. I don’t know of anybody who’s tried it and I’m not sure what problems you might run into. In practice, the vast majority of testing is done by UL and most resins are UL recognized. Most CBTLs will accept UL Recognition in lieu of IEC certification for a resin, so UL recognition alone is typically sufficient. Disclaimer: I am not an expert on flammability testing and the information provided is subject to correction. I encourage other subscribers to the list server to correct me if I am in error. Regards, Ted Eckert Compliance Engineer Microsoft Corporation [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> The opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer. From: Goedderz, Jim [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2010 6:01 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Plastics for Canada Colleagues, When dealing with our safety agency, we generally only indicate that the plastics have a UL94 flammability rating. All that I have reviewed also have a cUL. (Approval to CAN/CSA‑C22.2 No. 0.17) In dealing with a new supplier that is getting the approvals on their acrylic material, for use in a worldwide market, is it necessary to get the UL and the cUL? Thank you. James Goedderz Sr. Principal Engineer-Product Safety Sensormatic Electronics, LLC - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <[email protected]> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc <http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc> Graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. can be posted to that URL. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <[email protected]> Mike Cantwell <[email protected]> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher <[email protected]> David Heald <[email protected]> - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <[email protected]> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc Graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. can be posted to that URL. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <[email protected]> Mike Cantwell <[email protected]> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher <[email protected]> David Heald <[email protected]>
