Is the GF EN 60825-1 compliant?

Correct - we’re working on both the US (CDRH) and EU (EN 60825-1) compliance standards to have everything in place when we ship.

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Doesn’t some UL testing require testing to failure? As in, a glowforge must die in the process? Say it ain’t so.

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I don’t know the requirements of testing for certification but I know it can be an expensive time consuming process.

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@dan - will shipping Glowforges be UL listed?

We have not completed UL testing.

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Thank you! I’m very happy to hear this =)

Understood, but do you intend to have the GFs UL (or other NRTL) tested? I don’t see lack of NRTL certification as a major problem from a personal standpoint but others might and my understanding is that obtaining the certification can be a somewhat expensive and time-consuming endeavor.

In a past life, one of my responsibilities was to inspect all non-NRTL-listed electrical equipment and I was sometimes surprised at what passed NRTL certification though non-NRTL-listed equipment could be much worse.

Been answered by Dan several times. Yes. CE too.

But you know that because you were one of the folks that asked.

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Rick - just looking for official confirmation that UL listing is still planned at release. If you are familiar with the UL certification process, can you comment on how long that might take for a product like the GF? If it takes a week, fine, but if it takes a few months that could be another matter and something that might affect full product release. My sense is that certification can take a while but I have no idea if that is typically days, weeks, or months.

Other than Dan saying they are planning to do the certifications and also saying that if there are problems he would let us know before shipping, we have no way of knowing. My understanding is there is no such thing as typical time for certification testing because it depends on the type of product and there are many different processes. Either way it’s but one step in hundreds on a project timeline, any one of which could take days or many months. No answer other than “It’s done” or “we give up” will get us any closer to understanding impact on schedule.

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Thanks for your thoughts.

@rpegg is right - it’s something we’re working on, and like most aspects of the schedule, we’ll talk about it when it’s done - which may or may not be before we ship.

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Thanks @dan - it’s nice to get answers directly from GF and I appreciate the updated info.

Amen.
Last year we went with two different CE certification companies. One took 18 months and the other “DSL in Chicago” took 4 months. Those guys really know their stuff! We had to make tons of changes during both processes.

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Some sort of NRTL listing (like UL, TUV, etc.) would be more important in the US than CE. My last employer required that all electrical equipment be NRTL-listed or it had to be evaluated by in-house inspectors and it was surprising what problems were found with even name-brand manufacturers. CE-listing was explicitly disallowed, though they were a lot more anal than most other companies are likely to be.

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Agree,
This was for a table top Dilator tipping machine that we want to use in our European manufacturing locations.

If any engineering changes are still being made to the GF, NRTL listing may not be likely by the time product starts shipping, if your experience with CE certification is at all typical. I wonder if that would be a problem for those customers that require or need NRTL listing? For example, if the GF starts a fire in our house, could the insurance company legitimately deny the claim because the device was not listed?

You can self certify that you meet CE requirements. We just did not want to take that risk. Maybe they are doing that. Our induction power supply/ control unit was made with all CE marked sub components but we still had to change some placement items and reject high frequency radiation directed at our machine. All of it was very interesting and boring at the same time.
:slight_smile:

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I trust GF to do the right thing but would be a bit leery of self-certification.