With the advent and evolution of functional safety standards in North America and Europe, UL is now offering a UL Functional Safety Listing Mark that can be added for those qualifying companies in the process of getting a traditional Listing from UL.
Functional safety examines the efficacy of the safety-related system by considering the input variables to a device and confirming that the activating quantities of the output are within its designed parameters/ratings. So it goes beyond the traditional fire and electric shock safety associated with the traditional UL Listing Mark.
This is an example of what the marks look like with the marking elements included:
All of the elements on the right hand side of the Functional Safety Listing Mark are called marking elements. These will include the product category, a specific product designate, the functional safety standard, the edition of the standard, the safety rating, and the words “See installation manual for safety functions”— directly on the marking per se. In the top example above, you can see that the product is a programmable controller, evaluated in accordance with IEC 61508, the first edition 1998, and to a safety integrity level of 3.
UL puts the safety rating directly on the mark. This makes it easy for the user to understand exactly what has been certified.
While the safety rating is indicated directly on the mark, there are additional pieces of information that are needed by systems integrators to properly integrate the device into a larger system and still satisfy that safety rating. Once an integrator or manufacturer sees the UL mark and identifies the product as a component in their system, they can then look at the Listing card for that product on UL’s Internet-based online certification directory to find specific information (e.g., hardware fault tolerance) that allows proper integration of the component into a larger system and maintains the safety level of the overall system.
No matter what information is provided with the mark, as soon as it is a functional safety mark, the user must consult UL’s Online Certification Directory (www.ul.com/database) and also the installation manual for the product.
The UL Functional Safety Listing Mark is available with U.S., Canada, or Europe geography designations.
For more information on UL’s new Functional Safety Listing Mark— and for detailed information on how to secure and maintain the mark, click here or contact Kevin Connelly at 631-546-2691 or e-mail: [email protected].
