Part One: UL508A -Understanding Underwriters Laboratories (UL) Certifications

At Palmer DCS, we’re proud to have our UL and ISO certifications. They help us demonstrate to our customers our commitment to making high quality industrial control panels they can count on.

Most people have seen a UL mark, but they are less familiar with the wide range of different certifications available from UL. We want you to get to know our certifications, understand the requirements for attaining them, and see what that level of quality means for our customers.

Meet UL508A

UL508A covers industrial control panels (ICPs), which is an assembly of two or more power circuit components, control circuit components, or both. This assembly can be on a on a back panel (Open Type) or a back panel installed in an enclosure (Enclosed Type). Specifically, this certification deals with ICPs that are placed in ordinary (i.e., non- hazardous) locations with any NEMA type rating.

That’s a lot to take in. Let’s break that down a little bit.

An industrial control panel listed under UL508A can be used to operate a wide range of systems or products. The listing covers all requirements, including proper component usage, enclosure environmental ratings, protection for motors and wiring, safety markings, and conformance to both the National Electric Code (NEC) and the Canadian Electric Code (CEC). UL508A ICPs have widespread acceptance from regulatory bodies in every jurisdiction across the US and Canada. This minimizes incidence of red-flagged panels on job sites, preventing delays and extra costs.

The NEMA type rating refers to the type of environment in which you use the ICP. Different ratings apply to different grades of protection from general purpose, weather-resistant, watertight and corrosion resistance. We’ll get more in depth on both NEMA type ratings on a later post.

As for ICPs in hazardous locations, those are covered by our other UL certifications, and we’ll explore those next time.

With its widespread acceptance, UL508A is the certification to look for when it comes to most of your control panel needs.

What 508A Certification Means for Us and You

For us, we are certified under the UL Industrial Control Panel Shop Program. This program allows us to build custom or mass produced ICPs and apply UL marks for the United States (UL) and Canada (UL/CUL) at our production facility. Not every product we build is UL listed but they all are built to UL standards. The program allows us maximum flexibility in panel design and assembly and lets our customers know that their mass-produced panel has gone through the same rigorous quality controls as a one-of-a-kind panel has.

For us, this means UL representatives conduct unannounced inspections of our production facilities to make sure we’re upholding the standards required to carry on this certification.

For the user, this means not having to deal with the expensive consequences of having your panel rejected. Inspectors look for the UL label, and so should you.

At Palmer DCS, we’re proud to carry it.