How did UL verify our cable guarantee and service life calculator?

At this point, you probably already know that our chainflex® cable 36-month lifetime guarantee and service life calculator, which is based on 2 billion test cycles per year, have been verified by Underwriters Laboratories. But, we never really got into much detail about how that happened. What did UL do to verify our cable claims? What factors did they consider? How long did it take? In this blog post, we’ll answer those questions and explain how UL audited our processes.

The Audit
Before UL officially verifies an organization’s marketing claims, they perform an independent, objective, scientifically based audit. UL works with the organizations to develop a customized audit based on the product, process, system or facility they want verified. The final details of the audit are determined by UL’s steering committee.

The audit for our 36-month cable lifetime guarantee and service life calculator was split into four parts: product design, manufacturing, product lifetime and batch testing.

1. Product design – For this portion of the audit, UL wanted to know how we design our cables according to the performance requirements of each one, including what materials we use, how we test and inspect our cables, and how we keep record of it all.

 

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2. Manufacturing – During this stage, UL looked at what machinery we use to yield certain performance characteristics and what in-process test programs we have to fix or correct things that go wrong.

 

3. Product lifetime – This stage is where UL toured our 41,000ft2 test lab in Cologne, Germany to evaluate our facility, testing parameters (such as how long we run tests for, the sizes of the cable carriers used, the electrical characteristics of the cables, etc.) and the logic behind our service life calculator.

 

4. Batch testing – During the last stage of the audit, UL needed to validate our batch testing program, which ensures continual quality once we’ve already gone through the product design and testing phases. Fun fact: Every week, we test about 20% of all batches, which is roughly the equivalent of one test per part number.
   After eight weeks of auditing our processes, UL validated our cable claims and issued us a custom UL Verified mark (pictured above) that we can use in advertisements, marketing materials, and/or directly on our product.

UL did the homework so you don’t have to
UL’s audits are very thorough, and follow-up audits are required every year for manufacturers like igus to keep their verification valid. So, if you’re ever wondering whether chainflex cables really do last up to 36 months or whether you can trust the data in our online service life calculator, the answer is yes—because UL did the homework so you don’t have to.

If you’re interested in learning more about UL Verified igus claims, check out this blog post. You can also visit this webpage to learn more about chainflex, or contact an expert here to discuss cable solutions for your application.