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phildesign
Oct 27, 2005, 09:37 PM
I'm currently in the process of developing a product that incorporates a power strip. The power strip is housed (encased) but physically not altered. If the power strip is UL certified, would my new product need to be recertified anyway or would the UL approval transfer to my product.
What are the limitations with regards to power strip modification and maintaining UL certification?
Where can I find specific information on this topic?

Thank you

colbtech
Oct 28, 2005, 03:06 AM
My understanding of UL, CSA, CE, VDE or whatever certification you are after is that ANY alteration to an existing approved product negates the certification.

As your product utilises approved parts (without modification) your product would not necessarily receive UL certification.

I manufacture an electrical controller and cannot sell in the US/Canada because the product is not UL approved. All of the contents are UL CSA approved but that does not mean the product is approved.

The last costing I had was approximately 2,000 GBP. I don't make enough or sell enough for that.

With CE certification you are able to self-certify, providing you are able to provide anyone that asks for a technical reference workfile, which contains all of the specs on each individual component.

I am not sure that if you enclose a power strip inside an enclosure that you would require UL approval. You would require UL approval should you have additional UL approved components though.
Hope this helps.

phildesign
Oct 28, 2005, 04:59 PM
This is great help, thanks for the response.