UL Listing and CE Marking

Introduction

Navigating the maze of international safety standards that apply to capital equipment can be daunting.

We’ve created this short guide to provide you with the information you need about our motion control products to help you meet both UL and CE safety and emissions standards.

UL Listing

What is UL Listing?

The Underwriters Laboratory has for many years offered a mechanism to certify the safety of mechanical and electrical products. Because UL Listing of machinery is helpful to the user when seeking factory insurance, it is common for machinery makers to seek UL Listing on their products. UL listing is obtained by engaging UL (or a body licensed by UL) to carry out the certification. This process focuses in particular upon electrical shock hazards, fire hazards and mechanical hazards.

Does UL Listing apply to motion controllers?

UL Listing applies only to products that are not part of a larger product or system. As a component of OEM machinery, SynqNet motion control products do not fall under the UL Listing directives.

How will Kollmorgen products affect the listing of my machine?

SynqNet motion control products are powered from voltages less than 42.4 VDC and therefore pose no shock hazard. They will typically be powered from a source that is limited to 200VA (a so-called “limited energy circuit”) and is thus considered incapable of causing a fire. Printed circuit boards used in the manufacture of our products are constructed from substrates with a flammability rating of UL94V-0 as required by some UL standards. Mechanical hazards arising from moving parts within the machine are the responsibility of the machine builder and are normally best dealt with using separate electrical interlocks as the primary means of protection and therefore do not concern the motion controller. In any case, the lack of UL Listing for the motion controller itself should not impede the machinery maker from obtaining UL Listing.

CE Marking

What is CE Marking?

The CE Mark signifies declaration by the responsible party that a product is compliant with all appropriate European Union New Approach Directives, such as the Low Voltage, EMC and Machinery Directives.

Do the EU Directives apply to motion controllers?

Not directly. The machinery directives make certain requirements in respect of protecting the operator of a machine. The usual method of meeting these requirements is to provide an independent primary safety system using electrical or mechanical interlocks. The low voltage directives is concerned in particular with shock hazard. As such, these directives are not directly applicable to SynqNet motion control products as they are generally operated from voltages less than 42.4 VDC.

The EMC directive obliges the machine as a whole to be tested to see whether it complies. The subsystems of a machine all play their part in achieving compliance; it is not simply a matter of taking all CE marked components, wiring them up, and assuming that the system will comply.

While these EU directives do not apply directly to board-level motion controllers, as a commitment to our global customers Kollmorgen has made it part of our standard engineering practice to test each of our new hardware products against CE emmissions and immunity criteria.

For information on whether your SynqNet product is CE marked, please contact your Kollmorgen Sales/Support Representative.

LVD (2006/95/EC)

The LVD Directive applies to all electrical equipment designed for use with a voltage rating of between 50 and 1000 V for alternating current and between 75 and 1500 V for direct current. Voltage ratings refer to the voltage of the electrical input or output, not to voltages which may appear inside the equipment.

Therefore, LVD Directive does not apply to Kollmorgen's motion controllers.

EMC (2004/108/EC)

The EMC Directive defines "apparatus" as any finished appliance, or combination thereof made commercially available (i.e. placed on the market) as a single functional unit, intended for the end-user, and liable to generate electromagnetic disturbance, or the performance of which is liable to be affected by such a disturbance. One of the pre-conditions in order to be considered an apparatus in the sense of the EMC Directive is that it is intended for the end-user. In this context, the end-user means any natural person (e.g. consumer) or legal entity (e.g. enterprise) using or intending to use the apparatus for its intended purpose.

Therefore, CE marking is not required for Kollmorgen's motion controllers.