Guide
Which equipment needs certification before it can be installed in Canada
The question we are asked most, and the one most suppliers answer badly. Here is the plain version.
The rule
Electrical equipment connected to line voltage has to be certified by a body accredited by the Standards Council of Canada before it can be installed. In Ontario the Electrical Safety Authority enforces this. CSA, cUL and Intertek ETL are the marks you will usually see. A CE mark alone means nothing here, because it is a self declaration for the European market.
Equipment that runs on low voltage DC or batteries, and never touches line voltage, generally falls outside that requirement. A 24 volt sensor fed from a certified power supply is a different case from a motor wired into a panel.
How this usually splits
- Needs certification. Motors, anything wired into a panel or connected to mains, hardwired lighting, and any mains powered accessory such as a power supply or charger, which needs its own listing separate from the device it feeds.
- Usually does not. 24 VDC sensors and profilometers, battery instruments, bench and laboratory equipment used for inspection rather than installed as plant.
- Depends. Equipment with an integrated mains power supply, and anything destined for a hazardous location, where the rating and the certifying body both matter.
What we do when a model is not yet certified
We say so on the product page rather than implying otherwise. Certification is a real cost and takes roughly three months, so it is started once there is confirmed demand for a model rather than speculatively across a catalogue.
In practice this matters less than people expect, because the timelines line up. Very few plants buy a ten thousand dollar instrument within a week unless something has already gone badly wrong. If you are in that position, say so and you will get a plain answer on whether certification affects your application at all. For inspection equipment that is not installed as plant, frequently it does not.
What will not happen is a certificate being described as existing when it does not. An uncertified unit can be refused at installation regardless of how well it performs, and finding that out on the day is expensive.
A note on the economics
Where inspection equipment is concerned the arithmetic is usually straightforward. If bad parts are leaving your plant, the cost of a single missed part often exceeds the cost of the instrument that would have caught it. Catching the problem while the root cause analysis continues is nearly always cheaper than continuing to ship.