Busy providing electrical safety tests

Busy providing electrical safety tests

A year after UL opened its Middle East Electrical laboratory in Abu Dhabi, this first industrial lab in the region is keeping busy providing safety tests to help deliver a sustainable future. The purpose-built lab tests electrical items found in most buildings to prevent against the risks of fire, power outages and electric shock. One of its key purposes is to minimise the risk of fires in the region by expertly testing electric panel boards being used in numerous hospitals, schools, commercial and residential buildings.

With construction continuing at pace across the region the new laboratory offers a trusted source of testing and reassurance to its corporate and government clients, which have employed UL to ensure the end consumers are protected. Hamid Syed, UL, Vice President & GM said: “Many authorities have introduced strict pre-qualification requirements to ensure public safety and set a benchmark of quality. Therefore, these various vital products and components must undergo the right level of testing to ensure they reach these levels of quality and protect the public from risks such as fires”.

The state of the art laboratory spans over 850 mand specialises in testing electrical equipment to ensure it is equipped to withstand the various climatic and industrial conditions encountered in the Middle East. With four specialist testing zones – Environmental, Dust, Aqua and Heat, the laboratory also boasts one of the world’s largest temperature rise test facilities.

The fully automated and remotely accessible Heat Zone in the Mussafah based laboratory has a capacity to pump currents up to 20kA and reach a heat of 70o Celsius in a room that spans over 100m2 in area, while 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 4 tonnes.

The testing capability was conceived and invested in Abu Dhabi in the UAE following the close working relationship with ADDC (Abu Dhabi Distribution Company), part of ADWEA (Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority).

UL.com.