Laboratory accredited

The accredited laboratory must dispose of data about the state of the block surfaces, their geometrical sizes and acoustical characteristics. These characteristics are defined in periodical testing of the blocks. 

The accredited laboratory must confirm that all the equipment used in NDT implementation is tested with regular intervals in compliance with relevant state standards. 

Checking is performed in accredited laboratories on procedures developed in compliance with stated requirements and approved in the process of testing implementation on CTB 8001-93 or metrological attestation on CTB 8004-93. 

Analytical methods, particularly those used by accredited laboratories, have to be validated according to official rules and regulations to characterize objectively their reliability in any special field of application (Wegscheider [1996] EURACHEM/WELAC [1993]). Validation has to control the performance characteristics of analytical procedures (see Chap. 7) such as accuracy, precision, sensitivity, selectivity, specificity, robustness, ruggedness, and limit values (e.g., limit of detection, limit of quantitation). 

Accredited laboratories using the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) logo on their reports should make it clear to their customers whether the opinion and/or interpretation is part of their scope of accreditation. If the opinion or interpretation on a report is not within the scope, then there has to be a disclaimer, The opinions and interpretations indicated are outside the scope of UKAS accreditation . UKAS has published a guide to help interpret the ISO standard [3]. 

Finally, the laboratory s freedom to subcontract tests or make use of outside services is strictly defined, to ensure that work placed with an accredited laboratory is not farmed-out to a laboratory with inadequate quality procedures. 

The financial cost of accreditation is undoubtedly substantial. It has been estimated that the additional cost of being a fully accredited laboratory might add around 30% to the cost of an analysis. Some laboratories state that they work to ISO standards, but without submitting themselves for accreditation, thus avoiding the substantial cost of the external assessment procedure necessary for obtaining certification. It is self-evident that a laboratory which adheres to ISO standards (whether certificated or not) ought to routinely... 

Three standard wood fuels have been studied (a) wood chips, (b) wood pellets, and (c) fuel wood. Figure 17 displays the three types of wood fuels. The fuel wood is from softwood, namely pine and spruce. Table 3 shows the wood fuel data. The moisture, ash and elementary analysis is carried out by an accredited laboratory in Sweden according to Swedish test standards (SS). 

The conformity assessment body could be a laboratory, the third-party could be the accreditor coming to your laboratory to inspect, whether the required documentation, manuals, procedures, or personnel are appropriate to perform the specific conformity assessment task e.g. determine PAHs by HPLC. If the laboratory (the conformity assessment body) and the personnel can do the job then accreditation might be granted. Being accredited can be of competitive advantage for laboratories. Sometimes contractors require the (analytical) work to be carried out in an accredited laboratory. Accreditation gives confidence to the customer that the laboratory will fulfil the requirements that are necessary for the work to be done competently. You find more about accreditation in chapter 2 of this book. 

A development of the last years is expected to serve more efficiently the need for clarification. Following the joint ISO-ILAC-IAF Communique of June 2005, a statement could be included on accreditation certificates. According to this statement, the accredited laboratory has demonstrated both its technical competence for the defined scope and the operation of a quality management system. 

Furthermore, the equivalence in the way both the laboratoiy accreditation standard and the certification standard deal with the management system requirements illustrates that an accredited laboratory meets, in practice, these requirements as specified in ISO 9001. After a proposal made via Eurachem and EA to ILAC, a similar joint Communique was agreed and signed in September 2009 by ILAC, lAF and ISO for medical laboratories against ISO 15189 2007. 

ISO/IEC17025 states the necessity for an accredited laboratory to have a management system related to quality with certain requirements as well as procedures to keep documents under control... 

The Schedule Y (12) of nonclinical safety evaluation also describes application of GLP for the animal studies to be conducted in an accredited laboratory. 

Accreditation is the procedure by which the competence of a laboratory to perform a specified range of tests or measurements is assessed against a national or international standard. The accreditation covers the kinds of materials tested or measured, the procedures or methods used, the equipment and personnel used in those procedures, and all relevant systems that the laboratory has in place. Once accredited, the laboratory is entitled to endorse test results with their accreditation status which, if it has any validity, is an imprimatur of some degree of quality and gives the client added confidence in the results. Accreditation therefore benefits the laboratory, by allowing the laboratory to demonstrate competence in particular tests, and the client, by providing a choice of accredited laboratories that are deemed competent. 

Accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025 or GLP is becoming a standard approach to creating a quality system (chapter 9). Note that accreditation, as such, is not part of the VAM principles, but it is one of alternative quality systems (see chapter 1). Like any quality system, accreditation only fulfills its purpose if implemented properly. Some laboratories have done the minimum to achieve accreditation, and then take the view that having paid for their accreditation payment of the annual fee will then suffice. This practice is evidenced when accredited laboratories perform no better in testing rounds than experienced laboratories without accreditation (see chapter 5). 

This example illustrates that there is no guarantee that results are reliable, even if they are obtained by "accredited " laboratories using accepted procedures. A good way to assess the reliability of a lab working for you is to provide the lab with blind samples—similar to your unknowns—for which you know the right answer, but the analyst does not. If the lab does not find the known result, there is a problem. Periodic blind check samples tire required to demonstrate continuing reliability. 

Calibration is based on the principle of traceability from a primary standard through intermediate standards to the test equipment, with estimates of the uncertainty which increases at each step in the chain. Wherever possible, bought in calibrations should be carried out by an accredited laboratory. It is perfectly acceptable for the test laboratory to do its own calibration but then they must maintain appropriate calibration standards and operate a measurement management system in accordance with IS01001213. One factor which has hindered full appreciation of the detailed needs of... 

The Californian Collaborative for High Performance Schools requires contractors bidding for the construction of new schools and other public building projects to guarantee that they will only use materials whose emissions have been tested and certified by an accredited laboratory using the 01350 test protocol (see Table 6.1). 

Comparability is rarely determined because of the added sampling and analysis costs. In theory, the data produced at accredited laboratories by use of the same EPA-approved or other standard analytical methods should be comparable. In reality it is not so, mainly due to variability within the environmental sample itself and the differences in sample handling and analytical method implementation at different laboratories. 

RMs, preferably certified by reputable and accredited laboratories, provide vital contributions to the science of chemistry, to industry in its quest for quality assurance, and to commerce for consensus product characterizations. All such RMs should have designated values bonded to the units of the SI, where possible through national metrology laboratories [9-13],... 

The GUM approach to uncertainty is rapidly gaining acceptance in metrological institutes and industry, and must be applied in ISO and CEN standards. It should be used in accredited laboratory work but chemists often find the implementation difficult and therefore hesitate [34], Additionally, sometimes, there is a fear that honest GUM uncertainty intervals, which may be wider... 

Abstract This paper reviews the current state of play of the Mutual Recognition Arrangement created by the International Committee for Weights and Measures in 1999. The aim of the MRA is to provide a framework within which National Metrology Institutes can demonstrate the equivalence of their realisations of the units and quantities of the SI system to which accredited laboratories are traceable. The article offers some views on the need for traceable... 

It has frequently been suggested that the organisers of interlaboratory certification studies should only accept reliable laboratories as participants and one obvious selection criterion would be to use only accredited laboratories. However, an evaluation of data obtained from several studies organised by LGC over the past 7 years indicates that accredited laboratories are not necessarily more reliable than nonaccredited laboratories. For example, Fig. 1 shows that in an interlaboratory study to determine magnesium in water, accredited laboratories (marked with an asterisk) were just as likely to produce results with a large deviations as nonaccredited laboratories. 

The WRMs are binary mixtures of C02 in nitrogen for each one the concentration with its uncertainty are certified by the supplier. The comparison of WRMs with PRMs was carried out in the range 300 500 mol/mol. PRMs used were supplied by a COFRAC accredited laboratory and were gravimetrically prepared mixtures of C02 in nitrogen. Each cylinder is accompanied by a certificate of analysis which reports the concentration and its uncertainty as provided by the analytical verification of the mixture. 

Valid Analytical Measurement) Programme [2] and this trend has continued with the recent establishment at LGC of the UK Chemical Calibration Facility which provides a focus for achieving trace-ability in ISO 17025 accredited laboratories. 

Achieving traceability in ISO 17025 accredited laboratories clearly demands more than just provision of suitable calibration materials or values. Hence, traceability demonstrator projects are being undertaken to identify issues, best practice, and key areas to address. It is also necessary to transfer methodology and expertise to UK reference laboratories and to provide guidance on implementation of traceability to UK... 

The Director-General of the OPCW designates an accredited laboratory after it has successfully performed in the PTs. In order to maintain the designation, the DL must annually participate in one PT, and be successful. Two PTs are organized every year (see Chapter 6). 

With the exception of required on-site parameters, field data must always be supplemented by data from a regular, accredited laboratory. 

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