North American certification requirements for wire harness processing

Date：2021/7/23　　Clicks：1323

Many years ago, when wire harness manufacturers delivered to UL finished products manufacturers, it was acceptable as long as they could provide UL wire labels. But now, UL has begun to strengthen the supervision and management of wire harness manufacturers. Only the UL wire label cannot meet UL's requirements. The stipulation is that all wire harness manufacturers must have UL certification, otherwise they can no longer supply finished products. For wire harness manufacturers, it is now at the critical moment when they must apply for UL wire harness certification. Whoever has the wire harness UL certification is more likely to become a qualified supplier of UL finished products manufacturers.

1. Wire Harness Products:

Harness products refer to parts used in the factory assembly of finished products. They often contain two or more wires connected by mechanical or electrical power, and may contain components such as connectors, plugs, net tails or heat shrink tubing. In the UL certification, the category control number (CCN) of the wiring harness product is ZPFW2/8.

The wire harness industry chain includes wire and cable, connectors, processing equipment, wire harness manufacturing and downstream application industries. From the perspective of application, wiring harnesses can be divided into wiring harnesses for automobiles, wiring harnesses for household appliances, wiring harnesses for computers and communication equipment, and so on.

The wiring harness mainly includes two major categories:

(1) Assembled wiring harnesses are usually processed in the following ways: cutting and dipping the wire, soldering terminals, adding connectors or adding other parts (such as tape, magnetic ring, heat shrink/fiber conduit), etc.

(2) Injection molding wire harnesses are usually processed in the following ways:

Wire + anti-strain device (SR) or wire + audio and video end (RGB) or wire + appliance connection end or wire + USB end or wire + DC end or wire + electrical equipment external terminal + other special terminals, connection器等。

 

2. Cutting line products:

A single core wire is cut to a specific length, one end or two ends are stripped and repackaged for further processing. The stripped end can be soldered, or crimped with some hole-shaped, ring-shaped, open spade-shaped or quick-connect terminals. (As shown below)

The category control number (CCN) of the cutting line product is ZKLU/2/7/8.

3. UL certification standard: UL764

4. Documents to be prepared for certification application

1. Certification application form: provide the detailed and accurate name, address, contact person, postal code, telephone and fax of the following units in both Chinese and English
a. Applicant company: the company that applies for product testing and is responsible for all engineering service costs
b. Listed companies: companies whose names are listed in various product catalogs published by UL
c. Production plant: the manufacturer and producer of the product

2. Product Picture
3. Business License

5. Certification process:

After obtaining the UL certificate, UL will conduct an initial factory inspection (IPI) for the wiring harness factory. Following IPI, inspectors will visit the factory from time to time to inspect the product structure and conduct witness experiments. The frequency of inspection is determined by the product type and production volume. Most types of products are inspected at least four times a year. This measure is to ensure that the product is consistent with UL requirements. If the manufacturer plans to change the product structure or components, it must first notify UL related information. UL needs to evaluate whether it needs to add new samples for consistency confirmation based on the information provided by the manufacturer. For details, please Contact Saida to confirm what information needs to be provided for evaluation.

6. Certification period: 4-6 weeks

7.  label purchase:

After passing the initial factory inspection, the wire harness manufacturer can apply to UL's label center to purchase the label. The procedure for purchasing the label is as follows:

It is worth noting that there are two types of labels available for wire harness processing, namely Form 1-N and Form N.

Form 1-N-This approval label is used for connectors that contain four or less parts. Each wire, assembly accessory, connector, junction box, wiring device, etc. is regarded as a component. Simple terminals such as eye-hole, ring, open spade or quick-connect terminals are not counted as a part when determining the form of the label. One of these four (or less than four) components may be the listed power cord.

Form N-This approval label is used for connectors that contain more than the four components mentioned above. This type of connector may include a listed power cord as one of its components.

Guangzhou Saida Testing Technology Co., Ltd. (Certitek) was established in 2006 and is a professional testing organization (CNAS L6277) accredited by the China Conformity Assessment Committee CNAS. Committed to the wire and cable testing and certification industry for fifteen years, with a senior engineer team and advanced testing equipment, assisting domestic and foreign companies to successfully obtain certification. If you have UL, BSMI, PSE, CCC, VDE, SAA and other certification requirements, please feel free to contact us.

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Ms. Chen Xi
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