UL  UNDERWRITERS LABRATORY HISTORY FACTS

• 1913 UL tests a container called an insulated cabinet for the Safe Cabinet Company.
• 1921 UL is named the official testing station for burglar alarms and locking devices by the Burglary Insurance Underwriters Association.
• 1923 UL establishes a Burglary Protection Council.
• 1925 The first bank vault is tested.
• Today, UL Classifies safes and vaults according to 10 different time ratings and certifies more than 65,000 installations worldwide for ability to withstand attack.

UNDERWRITERS LABRATORY - WHAT THEY DO?

UL's precision team gets 15 minutes to two hours to open a safe, creating an opening as little as two inches through which a burglar could fish out a small envelope or punch through a 96-square-inch hole needed to successfully pilfer a vault. Safes that survive the timed onslaught of the UL experts are likely to thwart the most professional of burglars for days, even when the safe is carted away for pummeling with the most sophisticated tools. UL tests for public safety by trying to knock the dial off and pick the lock, by forcing the handle, or drilling or blasting through an opening using high-tech torches and specified amounts of nitroglycerine.

Safes also undergo a rigorous test by fire when they are heated to 2,000 degrees F and dropped three stories onto broken cement blocks. Safes can't open, temperatures inside can't rise above 350 degrees F and sample papers left inside have to be readable.

Burglary-Resistant Safes

UL 687

1 Scope

1.1 These requirements cover combination locked burglary-resistant safes classified as follows:

a)    Test attack against the door and front face:

1)    Tool-Resistant Safe - Class TL-15

2)    Tool-Resistant Safe - Deposit Safe

3)    Tool-Resistant Safe - Class TL-30

4)    Torch- and Tool-Resistant Safe - Class TRTL-30

b)    Test attack against the door and body:

1)    Tool-Resistant Safe - Class TL-15X6

2)    Tool-Resistant Safe - Class TL-30X6

3)    Torch- and Tool-Resistant Safe - Class TRTL-15X6

4)    Torch- and Tool-Resistant Safe - Class TRTL-30X6

5)    Torch- and Tool-Resistant Safe - Class TRTL-60X6

6)    Torch-, Explosive-, and Tool-Resistant Safe - Class TXTL-60X6

1.2 These requirements do not cover night depositories intended to receive deposits from outside a building into a receiving safe inside a building. Such requirements are in the Standard for Night Depositories, UL 771.

1.3 A safe classified as TL-15, TL-30, TL-15X6, or TL-30X6 may be constructed with an opening in the body for connection to the chute of a night depository. A safe classified as TL-15 or TL-30 that has a body constructed of solid metal may be marked to provide for an opening to be cut into the body in the field for connection to the chute of a night depository.

UL 687 references these Standards: 768 * 771 * .