New Machine electrical inspection requirements?

[marshal]

We just took delivery of a DMG Mori NLX2500, and our electrician is telling us that the electrical inspector will most likely require the entire machine to be UL inspected (or an equivalent national lab I assume).  Have any of you run into this before, or is it some weird local code that's screwing us over?

[beej]

That would be new for us.  we have never needed an inspection of any kind. (Missouri)

[marshal]

I should mention this is southeast Minnesota.  Although from what I can find the state follows the National Electric Code.

[YoDoug]

Happens every time we get a new machine. We use a third party inspector that will review the electrical prints, then do a quick inspection of the machine and issue a UL cert/sticker. This is very common in MN as it is a very union friendly state and state inspectors support UL. When I worked for the Okuma dist we found it was the inspectors in the southern parts of the state that were really picky about it. The guys up north did not care too much if the machine had a UL sticker, or at least they didn't make a big deal.

[marshal]

Happens every time we get a new machine. We use a third party inspector that will review the electrical prints, then do a quick inspection of the machine and issue a UL cert/sticker. This is very common in MN as it is a very union friendly state and state inspectors support UL. When I worked for the Okuma dist we found it was the inspectors in the southern parts of the state that were really picky about it. The guys up north did not care too much if the machine had a UL sticker, or at least they didn't make a big deal.

hopefully the inspector our electrician has in mind is quick about it, he made it sound like it could be $10-15k just for that, which seems outrageous to me.

[gcode]

Sounds like government regulators scratching union backs to me

[YoDoug]

Sounds like government regulators scratching union backs to me

That is exactly what it is!

[YoDoug]

Happens every time we get a new machine. We use a third party inspector that will review the electrical prints, then do a quick inspection of the machine and issue a UL cert/sticker. This is very common in MN as it is a very union friendly state and state inspectors support UL. When I worked for the Okuma dist we found it was the inspectors in the southern parts of the state that were really picky about it. The guys up north did not care too much if the machine had a UL sticker, or at least they didn't make a big deal.

hopefully the inspector our electrician has in mind is quick about it, he made it sound like it could be $10-15k just for that, which seems outrageous to me.

Our guy and a different guy we used at the dist charge about $2000-$2500 to UL cert an Okuma machine. Now this is assuming there are no changes needed to make cert. So far we have not needed to add/change any components to get a cert. I can't imagine that a DMG would be different. I would ask your DMG salesman, they should have contact info for someone that can do it.

[Matthew Hajicek]

I've never heard of that happening.

[RobertELee]

Yup, beginning to happen everywhere. I've even heard requirements of duplicate machines needing to be made (of a custom one-off machine) and one needing to be sent to UL and they "test" the machine.

[So not a Guru]

Happens every time we get a new machine. We use a third party inspector that will review the electrical prints, then do a quick inspection of the machine and issue a UL cert/sticker. This is very common in MN as it is a very union friendly state and state inspectors support UL. When I worked for the Okuma dist we found it was the inspectors in the southern parts of the state that were really picky about it. The guys up north did not care too much if the machine had a UL sticker, or at least they didn't make a big deal.

And folks talk about how business unfriendly California is! Sounds like Minnesota is trying to give 'em some stiff competition.

[RobertELee]

[quote="So not a Guru" post_id=13301 time=1626343627 user_id=69]

Happens every time we get a new machine. We use a third party inspector that will review the electrical prints, then do a quick inspection of the machine and issue a UL cert/sticker. This is very common in MN as it is a very union friendly state and state inspectors support UL. When I worked for the Okuma dist we found it was the inspectors in the southern parts of the state that were really picky about it. The guys up north did not care too much if the machine had a UL sticker, or at least they didn't make a big deal.

And folks talk about how business unfriendly California is! Sounds like Minnesota is trying to give 'em some stiff competition.
[/quote]

What I have heard is not just MN, It's probably more how the area inspector interprets the law. But some states are full out requiring it.

I recall there being a thread on this at eMC a handful of years back as well.

[Tim Johnson]

Are you guys hiring electricians? We have our own in house electricians here (Michigan) and our machines are never inspected.

[marshal]

[quote="Tim Johnson" post_id=13309 time=1626358323 user_id=68]
Are you guys hiring electricians? We have our own in house electricians here (Michigan) and our machines are never inspected.
[/quote]

yeah we hire it out.  We're a pretty small company and very rarely add anything that needs to be wired, so it's not worth having an electrician on staff.

[YoDoug]

[quote="Tim Johnson" post_id=13309 time=1626358323 user_id=68]
Are you guys hiring electricians? We have our own in house electricians here (Michigan) and our machines are never inspected.
[/quote]

It's not so much whether you do it in house or hire it out. MN code says it needs to be inspected after just about any building mod, addition, new construction, or equipment add. It's the state inspectors that flag the UL certs. I don't know what other states have as requirements, but I do know a few years back Okuma started importing their machines as "UL prep spec", because it was becoming an issue all over the country. The spec means they should pass UL cert without any changes needed, but they are not fully certified. From my understanding, because machine tools come in many configurations and many different options it would require each machine to be UL certified after being built versus a consumer product that gets UL certified one time for every one that is built to that spec. My guess is most states/cities/etc. have some sort of inspection requirements after installing a piece of high voltage equipment, but most businesses don't get the inspection done.