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UL opens first safety test lab in Abu Dhabi

Global safety science organisation, Underwriters Laboratories (UL), has opened its first GCC-based safety-test laboratory in Abu Dhabi.
UL vice-president and general manager, Hamid Syed, on Tuesday said that this is the first step and that the company would like to expand into other emirates.
"As of last year, we are the number one service provider of switchgear testing in the region. We are the only one with testing facility in this region," Syed said regarding the new facility in Mussafah.
At the laboratory, electrical equipment is tested to ensure it can withstand weather and factory conditions. "Every building has various electrical items be it switchgears, circuit breakers and others. All the electrical equipment needs certification of safety and quality. We offer testing, certification, auditing among other services," he said. "There have been some devastating fires in the Middle East in recent years and we will be working with key authorities to minimise this risk in the years to come," he added.
Someone has to ensure the electrical items used in buildings to prevent short circuit, shocks, outages and fire are good enough, UL Middle East engineering leader Raghunath Gopalakrishna said. Building fires are the most worrisome incidents and UL seeks to tackle this issue.
If all the electrical panels are well tested ones then such incidents won't happen, lab manager, Santosh Tripathy, said. "Our testing laboratory is divided into four testing zone - environmental, dust, aqua, and heat. Thus this covers all areas. We have the biggest temperature rise test facility of this region," Tripathy said. "We are looking ahead to serve switchgear clients," he said.
The heat zone has a capacity to pump currents up to 20kA and reach a heat of 70 degrees Celsius in a room that spans over 100sqm in area. The environmental zone offers multiple mechanical and environmental tests for extreme corrosion, damp heat, humidity, UV and thermal stability.
The dust zone consists of one the world's largest chambers for 'ingress protection' testing to ensure various kinds of electrical equipment will not be affected by sand and other fine dust particles and is complimented by the aqua zones water ingress protection tests, which includes a state of the art rotating and inclinable table that can bear a load of up to four tones.
- ashwani@khaleejtimes.com