UL Offers Certification Services for New Marking and Labeling Standard, UL 969A

UL, a leading global safety science organization, has launched services to certify products to ANSI/CAN/UL 969A, the Standard for Marking and Labeling Systems – Flag Labels, Flag Tags, Wrap-Around Labels and Related Products. UL 969A covers labels and tags affixed to an electrical flexible cord or fluid carrying hose that are intended to provide information such as hazards, warnings, cautionary markings, installation instructions and/or electrical ratings. UL 969A is published by UL’s nonprofit affiliate, Underwriters Laboratories. The Standard is recognized as a national standard for the U.S. and Canada.

There are currently about 50 UL end-product standards and outlines of investigation that have specific requirements for labels or tags applied to cords or hoses. Although there are commonalities between the requirements, there are some key differences between the exposures, testing, and compliance criteria required for each standard. UL 969A brings all the critical requirements from these various standards into one standard to provide a common set of requirements for many different industries. This will promote the use of consistent permanence of marking requirements across multiple end-product standards. UL 969A expands on existing requirements by providing additional clarification on how to properly prepare test samples and elaborate on exposure conditions and test procedures to ensure consistent application and interpretation of requirements.

The genesis of UL 969A stems from discussion at a 2017 meeting of UL Standards Technical Panel (STP) 969. Panel members supported development of the new Standard and UL agreed to work towards its development. The proposal ultimately obtained consensus with zero ‘no’ votes, leading to final publication in July 2020. A UL STP is a transparent, open, and balanced group of technical experts who are responsible for the development and revision of standards, and are convened by the standards development organization within Underwriters Laboratories. STP 969 currently has 25 voting members, with members representing the United States, Canada and Sweden.

“Complying with multiple sets of requirements can result in redundant testing and slow down innovation and time-to-market, leading to higher costs.” said Ryan Houle, Principal Engineer for Marking & Labeling Systems at UL. “Using UL 969A for certification simplifies the process of meeting requirements for both product manufacturers and label converters by utilizing a single common set of requirements that can be referenced in multiple end-product standards.”

To purchase a copy of UL 969A, please visit the UL Standards Sale Site.