UL Solutions announced the opening of its expanded Basingstoke electromagnetic compatibility and wireless testing laboratory with the debut of new testing facilities specifically for the appliance and lighting industries. With this expansion, the UL Solutions campus in Basingstoke is now one of the most extensive commercial EMC and wireless test laboratories in the United Kingdom. “One of the largest independent specific absorption rate (SAR) testing laboratories in Europe – the company explains -, the Basingstoke facility expansion includes: a new chamber that offers the ability to make measurements from 30MHz to 18GHz without changing device or product configuration; extensive process automation resulting in quicker testing, data collection and time to market; existing safety testing for lighting and appliance products, which can now be combined with EMC and wireless testing to offer a full solution for connected lighting and connected appliances”. Besides, the Basingstoke facility can also test and certify products with Wi-Fi 6E capabilities, and this laboratory expansion complements over 20 years of UL Solutions expertise in testing and certifying mmWave technology. In addition to the new capabilities listed above, the laboratory is one of only a few third-party testing laboratories in Europe to offer 5G testing for both millimeter wave (mmWave) and sub-6 gigahertz (GHz) frequency ranges. For the appliance industry, UL Solutions testing and certification services evaluate household and commercial appliances against stringent safety, security and sustainability standards to navigate complex regulatory requirements. New appliance services at the Basingstoke facility include EMC, wireless functionality and interoperability testing that help smart appliances and devices connect to a network right out of the box and perform to specifications on promoted features. In addition to EMC and wireless testing such as Bluetooth, Zigbee and Thread, UL Solutions has recently added capabilities to test to Konnex (KNX) and Digital Addressable Lighting Interface (DALI) protocols. KNX is a protocol standard for building control systems used for commercial and domestic building automation. It was designed to keep the energy consumption of sensors and switches for wireless components low, with tight interaction between all components.
