Priorclave Earns ETL Listing With Third Edition Certification
By: Priorclave North America
Category: News
Priorclave Ltd., one of the United Kingdom’s leading manufacturers of laboratory autoclaves, is pleased to announce that they have earned ETL Certification in the US and Canada. Going a step further, Priorclave also met the stringent new 61010-1 3rd Edition standards. This puts Priorclave years ahead of other manufacturers in terms of electrical engineering and safety. According to John Cooper, Technical Adviser at Priorclave Ltd., “This has been a very rigorous two-and-a-half year process, with the end result being the assurance that you’re getting a first-class product.”
When a device is certified and listed by ETL, UL, or another Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL), consumers can rest assured that the product has met the safety and compliance standards enforced by OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration), SCC (the Standards Council of Canada), and other government agencies.
Many consumers are unfamiliar with ETL, despite its 118-year track record and international reputation as the world’s largest network of accredited NRTL facilities. The most immediately recognized NTRL in the United States is Underwriter’s Limited, which administers the familiar “UL Listed” seal stamped on hair dryers, heating pads, and other household appliances. UL was founded following the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and originally focused on assessing fire hazards — especially the risk of electrical fires — created by new consumer products and manufacturing processes. Three years later Thomas Edison founded ETL (then called the “Electrical Testing Labs”) as a third-party testing operation to address public concerns about lightbulb safety and performance. Today, ETL operates more than 1,000 testing facilities in 100 countries. This fast, flexible, and highly responsive global network of state-of-the-art laboratories has made ETL the preferred NRTL for smaller manufacturers.
As Priorclave technical adviser John Cooper explains: “[ETL certification] is an awful lot of work for a smaller company. We set aside a lot of time and expertise to make the grade. Every part of the autoclave undergoes rigorous testing to ensure it meets all the parameters, as does the assembly process — it’s quite in-depth.”
The new 61010-1 3rd Edition standards are even more stringent, with a much greater emphasis on addressing risk assignment and risk management. This new standard isn’t mandatory in the United States until 2018. According to Martin Prior, manufacturing director at Priorclave, “What ETL [certification] does is demonstrate, as a company, our commitment to quality. Because of the stringent system you have to go through to become ETL-listed — especially to this higher standard – earning that listing has taken our operation up to the next level.”