ISO/IEC 17025 and NABL
ISO/IEC 17025 sets the requirements for the competence, impartiality and consistent operation of testing and calibration laboratories. A national accreditation body assesses a lab against it and grants accreditation for a defined scope: named test methods on named materials. In India that body is NABL, the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories, a constituent board of the Quality Council of India; it publishes a search of accredited labs and their scopes. NABL is a signatory to the ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement, whose members accept each other's accredited results, so an Indian report can be recognised abroad where the importing rule accepts accredited labs.
Accreditation covers methods, not the whole lab. A lab accredited for formaldehyde testing may not be accredited for lead in paint. Check each test on the report against the lab's published scope, and ask the lab to confirm any result that is not marked as accredited.
Checking a report against your goods
- Lab and scope: lab name, accreditation number and the method within the scope.
- Sample description: product, style, colour and any seal number match your order.
- Who drew the sample: most reports say results relate only to the items tested, as received. If the factory chose and sent the samples, the report proves nothing about the rest of the lot.
- Method and limit: the standard named in your order, and the legal or buyer limit for each result.
- Date: a report from an earlier season or another factory does not cover this production.
How Clear To Load uses it
Clear To Load has no laboratories of its own and no partner labs or lab commissions. Through lab testing coordination we agree a test plan with you, draw samples at random from your lot, seal them and send them to an ISO/IEC 17025-accredited lab you choose or we suggest, then check the lab's report against the goods and the seal numbers. The coordination fee is US$99 per order; the lab's own fees are billed at cost with its invoice, or you pay the lab directly. See pricing and the guide to lab testing for goods made in India.