Explore Reliable UL Approved Wires at GKWinding - Your Trusted Source for High-Quality Electrical Cables

The quality of components used in your manufacturing has a direct impact on the safety and reliability of your products. When it comes to your winding wire needs, using UL Approved wires can ensure the quality.

What is UL Approved Wire?

UL Approved Wires are wires and cables that are approved and certified by a globally recognized body called Underwriters Laboratories (UL). They test wires for Safety and Performance Standards, and their approval is an important global recognition that certifies its compliance with specified standards.

What is UL?

Underwriters Laboratories UL mark ranks among the gold standard in electrical safety in North America and UL is maintained by the US Occupational Health and Safety Administration. This falls under the Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratories (NRTL) and they conduct testing using National Electrical Code (NEC) standards.

Why is it important to have UL Approved Winding Wires?

UL is purely a voluntary certification. But, due to its wide recognition and trust in the minds of international consumers, it is considered necessary for many electrical and electronic products.

UL approval ensures that the winding wire performs as per the specifications and acts as a guarantee of the winding wire’s performance. It is thus important to use only UL Approved winding wires for your products; as usage of quality compromised winding wires can result in underperforming motors which can either short circuit or result in warranty failures in the long run, increasing chances of your product failure.

By using UL Approved winding wires, you can ensure the following key aspects of your product:

Performance

UL Testing evaluates the performance of the winding wire before approving various parameters.

The performance of the winding wire will be tested concerning its:

current carrying capacity
voltage rating
environmental suitability

This will bring into focus the winding wire’s specific electrical characteristics that will determine its suitability for specific applications.

Safety

Safety is one of the key aspects tested by UL before approving the winding wire. They test the winding wire in real time for the following factors:

Insulation: Tests for pin holes and whether the insulation of the winding wire is long-lasting or breaking off with increased workload.
Resistance to heat and fire: Tests the resistance of the winding wire to heat and fire as inflammability can result in fatal accidents reflecting on the product quality negatively.
Resistance to electrical issues: Tests whether the winding wire is prone to short circuits or whether it can tolerate prescribed electrical loads.

Compliance

Compliance with industry standards and codes, especially with the National Electrical Code (NEC) in the United States is tested before manufacture of UL Approved winding wires. This ensures adherence to safety regulations at the same time making them suitable to be used in various electrical installations.

Quality Assurance

The continuous audits and checks conducted on the manufacturers of winding wires by UL ensure continuous monitoring and compliance with the safety and performance standards.
They also conduct periodic tests on samples obtained directly from the market to verify satisfactory compliance with the standards currently applicable.

As you can see here, the magnet wire has to pass through various tests by UL to ensure its quality. Getting UL approval for wire is thus very tough as well as a costly and time-consuming process. Let us see the process of UL approval in detail to know more about it.

UL Approval Process to be followed by Winding Wire Manufacturers

Here is the process of UL approval to understand how it is done and how only the best players who are focused on quality get approved in the end.

Step 1 –The magnet wire suppliers like us who want to get our wires UL approved give a declaration to UL with the exact enamel name and supplier name we will be using. In case the enamel we are using is not UL approved, first the enamel supplier needs to get the enamel UL approved as per a particular thermal Class. (This approval involves life testing of the wire made using the specific enamel sent for the approval. This is a very rigorous test.)

Step 2 – Then the magnet wire supplier will make a sample of the wire and submit it to UL for approval.

Step 3 – UL will then conduct an IR test on the sample wire submitted by the magnet wire supplier, for correctness of the enamel used. Every enamel has a unique IR graph. If there is any contamination or if any other enamel is used, then there will be a variation in the IR curve and the sample will get rejected. If no variation is found in the IR curve, then the sample will pass the IR test.

Step 4 – After the IR test is passed, UL will do a life test on the wire.

This contrasts with usual magnet wire manufacturers who mostly do only a lab test of a few hours’ duration.

Step 5 – Even after completion of the above steps, UL will continue periodic audits and tests to verify the material and the processes at the factory of the magnet wire manufacturer. They also randomly collect and verify samples from the market to ensure compliance with the standards.

Since getting approval from UL involves so many levels of complex procedures, it naturally filters and gives the certification only to the best suppliers and Geekay is one among them.

The UL Approved wires are identified by the UL identification mark on them. The UL certifications have two variations.

UL Listed and UL Recognized

UL Listing is a certification given to finished products which are ready for sale in the market whereas UL Recognized component is a certification given to components that will become a part of a product at a later point in time.

Since winding wire is a component, it will have a UL Recognized mark. Here is Geekay’s UL certification for your reference.

Geekay's UL Certificate

And here is the list of UL Approved wires from Geekay

Material Designation	Mark Dsg	Base Coat	Top Coat	ANSI Type	Temp Class
GK 200	GK 200	Polyester	Polyamide – imide	MW – 35C	200
		Polyester	Polyamide – imide	MW – 73C	200
Geekay 200 A	Geekay 200 A	Polyamide – imide	Polyamide – imide	MW – 35C	200 [ # ]
		Polyamide – imide	Polyamide – imide	MW – 73C	200 [ # ]
Geekay 200 B	Geekay 200 B	Polyamide – imide	Polyamide – imide	MW – 37C	220
		Polyamide – imide	Polyamide – imide	MW – 38C	220
		Polyamide – imide	Polyamide – imide	MW – 35C	200 [ # ]
		Polyamide – imide	Polyamide – imide	MW – 36C	200 [ # ]
		Polyamide – imide	Polyamide – imide	MW – 73C	200 [ # ]
Geekay 200 H1	Geekay 200 H1	Polyamide – imide	–	MW – 30C	180 [ # ]
Geekay 200 H2	Geekay 200 H2	Polyamide – imide	–	MW – 30C	180 [ # ]
Geekay SOLD – F	Geekay SOLD – F	Polyurethane	–	MW – 79C	155
Geekay SOLD – H	Geekay SOLD – H	Polyurethane	–	MW – 82C	180 [ # ]
MW – 24	MW – 24	Polyester	Polyamide	MW – 24C	155
MW – 35	MW – 35	Polyester	Polyamide – imide	MW – 35C	200 [ # ]
		Polyester	Polyamide – imide	MW – 73C	200 [ # ]

Material Designation	Mark Dsg	Base Coat	Top Coat	Bond Coat	ANSI / Conductor Type	Temp Class
Geekay 200 B	Geekay 200 B	Polyamide – imide	Polyamide – imide	–	Al	220
MW – 35	MW – 35	Polyester	Polyamide – imide	–	–	220
GEEKAY SB200B	MW-102	Polyester-Imide	Polyamide-imide	Polyamide	Cu Al	180 200

Check out our entire enamelled winding wire Product Range

Products

Geekay as your UL approved Winding wire Partner

Geekay is an established copper and aluminium winding wire manufacturer since 1975. Our strong technical expertise in this field enables us to supply enamelled wires as per your needs. Our experience in manufacturing high-quality magnet wires and the strong supply chain can help lessen your production delays.

Geekay is committed to quality and here are some more certifications.