Manufacturers of electronics products understand the importance of ensuring that their products are UL certified and carry a UL label. So do their customers. Having a UL label is proof that the products has undergone rigorous testing and meet all safety requirements.

No customer wants to string up their Christmas tree lights and wonder if the tree will catch fire overnight, or purchase a coffee pot for the office kitchen and wonder if they’ll be calling their insurance agent in the morning because an employee forgot to turn off the coffee pot before they left for the day.

For manufacturers of electronics, legal ramifications for lack of proper labeling can be steep, as well. One major appliance manufacturer, for example, was fined by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) for selling microwaves without UL-certified labels. The company had been using an unapproved labeling system, and the microwaves were being sold with incomplete or inaccurate information. After an investigation, the company was fined $1.8 million for violating consumer safety laws.

If you are a manufacturer of business or consumer products, UL-certification, and the labels assuring your customers that the products they purchase are UL certified, are mission-critical to your business.

Obtaining a UL Certification

The UL symbol appears on over 22 billion products each year, from electrical components and electronics to household appliances and cooking equipment, as well as on key components that are used to create them. It is one of the most recognized symbols of product safety in the world.

To obtain a UL certification, a product must undergo a rigorous approval process. This includes a general performance test, an endurance test, and a safety evaluation to check for potential hazards and risks associated with the product’s use. Once the product has obtained certification, the manufacturer is required to adhere a UL label as outward notification that the product is safe from potential hazards such as electric shock, fire, radiation, or other harm caused by defective materials or design flaws.

There are basically three levels of UL certification:

• UL Listed, which is used for complete, self-contained products such as heaters, furnaces, and home appliances.
• UL Recognized, which is used for components and parts that are integrated into a larger system, such as circuit boards or AC-DC or DC-DC internal power supplies.
• UL Classified, which means the product has been evaluated only for certain properties, hazards, or meeting specific regulations.

What’s in a UL Label?

Because UL labels are designed to assure consumers that the products they are purchasing are safe, there are strict requirements for producing them. UL labels must be marked with cautions, safety requirements, hazards, warnings, electrical ratings, and installation instructions. They must also adhere to the product regardless of what the product is made or the environmental conditions to which it will be exposed.

Therefore, when ordering a UL label for your product, there are a variety of factors to consider:

• Type of product to which it is applied: UL labels are a sub-category of durable labels, so they must be carefully matched against the type of product to ensure the right match between the substrate and the adhesive. Not every adhesive will stick permanently to every substrate.
• Environmental conditions: UL labels must be highly durable and able to withstand moisture, UV, gasoline splash, and corrosive chemicals.
• Durability: UL labels must be able to remain on the product for a lifetime, even through the harshest environmental conditions.

Brandmark is a UL Authorized Label Supplier with more than twenty years of experience as an industrial label manufacturer. Our familiarity in the UL inspection process in label manufacturing and our knowledge of materials allow us to help you offer the ideal label construction on a short lead time. Because UL continuously inspects our work, we assist companies in fully complying with UL’s requirements.

Want to produce your own UL labels in-house? We can help you choose the right printer, ribbons, and matching substrate for your exact applications.

Want to Learn More About UL-Certified Labels?

Need UL-certified labels for your standalone products or product components?  Give us a call us to learn more about how we can help you get started.