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Testing Labs in North America

Questions about product testing:

• Why choose to work with a smaller lab, when UL and CSA do testing?
  • Do they only do testing for their own standards?
    • e.g. in order to comply with FCC Part 15, you would need to visit another testing lab?
    • This doesn’t seem to be the case with CSA, they certify for CE and for global standards
• When do companies certify their products in addition to testing them?
• How many times is a product tested during its development?
• When does a product become eligible to have a UL or CSA marking on it?
  • “The CSA mark on your product means it has been tested against applicable North American standards requirements”
  • “CSA marks confirm a product has been tested and meets the applicable standards for safety and performance as outlined by ANSI, UL, CSA, NSF, and other organizations”
• What sort of report/documentation is produced when a product is tested?
• What is stopping a company from putting a CSA logo on their product without testing it? Who checks that they’ve actually done the testing?

Testing Labs in Canada

• Many companies have their own in-house testing labs. Although they often don’t have ability to conduct every type of test. (Can they test and certify their own products?)

• Companies that write standards, and do testing:

  • CSA Group
  • Underwriters Labratories

• Big international labs (product safety, emc, enviro) (with presence in Canada)

  • Intertek (several locations across Canada)
  • SGS (many canadian locations)
    • https://www.sgs.com/en-ca/office-directory
  • TÜV SÜD (3 locations in Canada)
    • Canadian HQ in Newmarket, ON
  • Lab Test Certification (3/5 locations are in Canada)

• Single/a few location test labs in Ontario

  • UltraTech (in Oakville)
    • https://www.ultratech-labs.com/
  • Electronic Test Centre (in Ottawa and Airdrie)
    • https://electronicstestcentre.ca/
  • Vican Electronics (in Scarborough)
    • http://vican.ca/contact.html
  • Applied Test Labs

• Big international labs (w/o presence in Canada)

  - Nemko

• outsource testing when:

  • unable to test themselves
    • they go to a company that specializes in that
    • it might not be economical to do everything in-house (if they’re not used very often)
  • internal capabilities are booked up
    • too much testing needs to be done in a short amount of time
  • for certain parts, they cannot be tested in house, they must be tested by a 3rd party
    • e.g. emissions testing
  • getting into a new business area
    • have yet to invest in the testing capabilities

• how do companies choosing a lab for commodity testing (e.g. EMC)?:

  • capability
  • availability to suit schedule
  • cost
  • speed
  • intangible factors (good to work with, reputable, trustworthy people)
  • location
    • does the item need to be shipped to a testing lab?
    • is this a product that complicated to ship? does it need to be shipped across borders? or does it cost a lot to ship?
      • e.g. a lithium ion battery is considered a dangerous material, and will be tricky to ship across a border.
  • contract terms and conditions
    • are they favourable?
    • confidentiality
    • separation of clients
      • if a client comes to visit the lab, will they see your product?

• universities/colleges also offer testing!!!

• government laboratories also do testing

  • they have specialties

• why doesn’t everyone use UL?

  • they don’t do testing for every product category
  • they focus on niches for testing

Why are there so many test labs in Ottawa (Kanata)?