UL to Open Large Mobility Laboratory in Ise City, Japan

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UL, a leading global safety science company, has announced the July 1 opening of its Large Mobility Laboratory, a new electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) test facility. Designed to support key transformative mobility trends of connectivity, autonomy, sharing and electrification (CASE), the new facility, located in Ise City, Mie Prefecture, was developed specifically for the testing and verification of large-scale equipment and heavy-duty vehicles, such as construction machinery.

Mary Joyce, UL's general manager and vice president of Global Mobility and Automotive said, "The Large Mobility Laboratory, combined with UL's existing global network of laboratories and engineering talent­­, will help advance large mobility safety and innovation by offering large mobility manufacturers in Japan a seamless end-to-end service solution with unparalleled technical expertise. By placing UL's Large Mobility Laboratory in Japan, we will help manufacturers in that region navigate risk and enable greater speed-to-market for their products and solutions."

Environmentally-friendly real estate development and construction site safety and productivity improvements are driving the adoption of new construction machinery technologies, including autonomous vehicles and electrification. In equipment that contains multiple electronic devices, electromagnetic noise that emits from each device has the potential to cause interference with each other, risking serious accidents. EMC testing plays an important role in the prevention of such accidents.

According to the Japan Construction Equipment Manufacturers Association, approximately 50% of construction machinery manufactured in Japan is exported and used all over the world. As technological advances continue to evolve, construction machinery exported to European Union (EU) countries must conform to a new standard to help ensure safe operation. With the adoption of EN ISO 13766-1,2:2018, a new standard for earth-moving and building construction machinery to safeguard EMC and functional safety that will be mandatory Jan. 1, 2021, it will be necessary for Japanese construction machinery to undergo final, full-sized product immunity tests to meet this requirement. In addition to the EU, South Africa also requires EMC testing of full-sized construction equipment.

Supporting compliance to this new standard, UL's Large Mobility Laboratory features one of Japan's largest anechoic chambers capable of EMC testing for a variety of machines and transport, including forklifts, cranes, buses, trucks, trains, large agricultural machinery and small airplanes.

The size and capacity of the anechoic chamber complement other features to meet specific heavy-duty vehicle and large-scale machinery requirements. The facility also includes an expansive assembly space that allows large equipment to be assembled locally from individually delivered parts. In addition, the laboratory is also equipped with a 10 kilowatt radio frequency high power amplifier and a large antenna, instrumental for conducting immunity testing to satisfy EN ISO 13766-2:2018 standard criteria. Within the same building, a smaller anechoic chamber allows EMC tests to be conducted on individual components.

The Large Mobility Laboratory is certified to the standard governing the competence of EMC testing, ISO/IEC 17025 and joins UL's facilities globally, offering comprehensive wireless, cybersecurity, interconnectivity, materials and electric vehicle batteries compliance solutions addressing the mobility and automotive sectors.

Masahito Hashizume UL's senior director and general manager of Consumer Technology said, "We are honored to be a part of Japan's large mobility innovation ecosystem. The development of our Large Mobility Laboratory demonstrates our long-term commitment to empower our customers in Japan.  For more than 125 years, we continue to apply science and objective authority to solve critical challenges by helping develop and market safer products and innovations.  Our Large Mobility Laboratory allows us to harness this approach and equips us to better partner with innovative companies in Japan to fast-track their project fulfillment—allowing them ultimately to quickly grow and thrive."