Balance Scooter and E-scooter Batteries in North America
Balance Scooter and E-scooter Batteries in North America,
Batteries in North America,
▍What is cTUVus & ETL CERTIFICATION?
OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), affiliated to US DOL (Department of Labor), demands that all products to be used in workplace must be tested and certificated by NRTL before being sold in market. Applicable testing standards include American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards; American Society for Testing Material (ASTM) standards, Underwriter Laboratory (UL) standards, and factory mutual-recognition organization standards.
▍OSHA, NRTL, cTUVus, ETL and UL terms definition and relationship
OSHA: Abbreviation of Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It is an affiliation of US DOL (Department of Labor).
NRTL： Abbreviation of Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory. It is in charge of lab accreditation. Up to now, there are 18 third-party testing institutions approved by NRTL, including TUV, ITS, MET and so forth.
cTUVus： Certification mark of TUVRh in North America.
ETL： Abbreviation of American Electrical Testing Laboratory. It was established in 1896 by Albert Einstein, the American inventor.
UL： Abbreviation of Underwriter Laboratories Inc.
▍Difference between cTUVus, ETL & UL
| Item | UL | cTUVus | ETL |
| Applied standard |
Same |
||
| Institution qualified for certificate receipt |
NRTL (Nationally approved laboratory) |
||
| Applied market |
North America (US and Canada) |
||
| Testing and certification institution | Underwriter Laboratory (China) Inc performs testing and issue project conclusion letter | MCM performs testing and TUV issues certificate | MCM performs testing and TUV issues certificate |
| Lead time | 5-12W | 2-3W | 2-3W |
| Application cost | Highest in peer | About 50~60% of UL cost | About 60~70% of UL cost |
| Advantage | An American local institution with good recognition in US and Canada | An International institution owns authority and offers reasonable price, also be recognized by North America | An American institution with good recognition in North America |
| Disadvantage |
|
Less brand recognition than that of UL | Less recognition than that of UL in certification of product component |
▍Why MCM?
● Soft Support from qualification and technology: As the witness testing lab of TUVRH and ITS in North American Certification, MCM is able to perform all types of testing and provide better service by exchanging technology face to face.
● Hard support from technology: MCM is equipped with all testing equipment for batteries of big-sized, small-sized and precision projects (i.e. electric mobile car, storage energy, and electronic digital products), able to provide overall battery testing and certification services in North America, covering standards UL2580, UL1973, UL2271, UL1642, UL2054 and so forth.
Overview:
Electric scooter and skateboard are included under UL 2271 and UL 2272 when certificated in North America. Here is the introduction, on the range they cover and requirements, of distinctions between UL 2271 and UL 2272:UL 2272 is available for personal mobile devices, such as: electric scooters and balance cars.
From the standard scope, UL 2271 is the battery standard, and UL 2272 is the device standard. When doing the device certification of UL 2272, does the battery need to be certified to UL 2271 first?
First, let’s know about the requirements of UL 2272 for batteries (only lithium-ion batteries/cells are considered below):
Cell: lithium-ion cells must meet the requirements of UL 2580 or UL 2271;
Battery: If the battery meets the requirements of UL 2271, it can be exempted from the tests for overcharge, short-circuit, over-discharge and unbalanced charging.
It can be seen that if the lithium battery is used in the equipment that is applicable to UL 2272, it is not necessary to do UL 2271 certification, but the cell needs to meet the requirements of UL 2580 or UL 2271.
