Testing Accreditation

Dual Accreditation
Thus with both QA and NATA Accreditation customers can be genuinely confident that the products they purchase will satisfy their requirements.

Global-Mark QA Accreditation 100660
Most companies nowadays rely heavily on ISO9001 Certification to reflect an organisations commitment to quality, leadership, systems and the sound and stable processes which can deliver consistently safe products or services that meet their customer’s expectations.

This gives PLP’s customers confidence in our ability to deliver quality goods and saves them from having to conduct time consuming and expensive second party audits.

Whilst this is well and good a great deal of reliance is placed on the competency of the organisation’s facilities and personnel to be able to comply with the guidelines and procedures as required by ISO9001 Certification.

The QA Accreditation only ensures that the relevant processes are in place. It can not in itself ensure that these processes are being carried out competently by adequately trained staff with sufficient resources, facilities and training.
 

NATA Accreditation NO. 922
NATA accreditation provides a means of determining, formally recognising and promoting the competence of facilities to perform specific types of testing, inspection, calibration, and other related activities.

Accreditation is distinct from certification, which focuses on an organisation’s overall compliance with systems and products standards rather than technical competence. Facilities accredited by NATA become members of the Association.

NATA’s accreditation is based on a peer-review process made possible by some 3000 volunteer experts who assist with the assessment of facilities and sit on NATA’s various technical committees. To maintain accreditation, facilities must be re-assessed regularly.

The criteria for determining a facility’s competence are based on the relevant international standard (eg ISO/IEC 17025, ISO 15189, ISO/IEC 17020) and include: the qualifications, training and experience of staff; correct equipment that is properly calibrated and maintained; adequate quality assurance procedures and appropriate sampling practices.

Test Facilities comply with the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2005 including the following sections:

• 13.01 Metals and metal products
• 13.44 Mechanical tests on assemblies
• 13.94 Coatings