Underwriters Laboratories (UL) has announced its new UL Evaluation Service. With this new service, UL will issue UL Evaluation Reports for building products to streamline market acceptance in a fraction of the time normally required to demonstrate compliance with the family of International Codes. UL Evaluation Reports present an evaluation of products to ICC-ES (International Code Council’s Evaluation Service) Acceptance Criteria and compliance with the intent of code requirements.
Traditional UL Safety Certifications and the trusted UL Mark assists code authorities, architects, designers, specifiers, contractors, and other built environment influencers in determining code compliance for products where the model codes require testing and/or certification in accordance with specific standards. Now, UL Evaluation Reports further assist in determining code compliance in situations where products are not addressed in the codes, the codes are unclear, or where the codes have multiple requirements for a single product.
UL’s new Evaluation Service was designed to provide building materials manufacturers with expedited turnaround time and an easy way of doing business by working with one point of contact for both a UL Safety Certification and a UL Evaluation Report. Additionally, no annual report renewals should save manufacturers additional time and money in the process of getting their products to market.
Inclusion of UL Safety Certifications and UL Evaluation Reports on UL’s Online Certifications Directory provides easy access for code authorities, architects, and other decision makers to find code-complying products. Also, UL Evaluation Reports are included in UL’s Code Correlation Database, the only database of its kind that directly connects UL Safety Certifications with specific code sections, providing even more ease for decision makers to find code-complying products.
“UL’s Evaulation Service was launched in response to customer demand and fulfilled a commitment to customers to help meet their ever-increasing need for timely, efficient, value-added, and market-accepted code compliance reports,” said Kevin Faltin, UL business development director for Global Building Materials.
