Why is accredited testing important?

A number of Australian companies provide electrical product safety, environmental, EMC and calibration services. While most of these laboratories are accredited, some have no accreditations or expertise required. Some of these non-accredited testing facilities attempt to exploit buyers' lack of knowledge by providing non-accredited testing - often failing to disclose their reports lack the endorsement of NATA, A2LA, IANZ, CNAS or other accreditation bodies.

Non-accredited testing is currently most prevalent in the environmental product testing industry - a structural change in the automotive industry has led component suppliers with in-house test facilities touting for any sort of work that will keep them afloat. These companies usually lack the experience/expertise of testing products and components for other industries.

Using non-accredited labs for pre-scans or preliminary evaluations can prove disastrous if the test data provided by the labs is proven incorrect when the product is submitted to an accredited lab for conformance testing. Problems of non-accredited testing typically surface when some sort of formal product approval is required, either locally or for export purposes. This often results in retesting of the product, this time at an accredited lab. An example would be: CE mark compliance, where a company has produced a declaration of conformity to various standards. Although when asked, the test reports do not exist, were based on in-house testing or were from a non-accredited lab. The company may lose the funds invested in testing and the product may fail accredited testing, resulting in the redesign of a product that may have already been produced in high volume.

Companies should not risk a product recall because the device wasn’t tested correctly to the required standard.

Many industries and regulators, including the Australian electrical regulators and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), routinely specify accredited reports to satisfy their compliance requirements. Larger companies or government departments that purchase electrical and electronic products often specify accredited test reports or Australian safety approval certificates so as to minimise the risk of non-compliance and product recalls.

Accredited labs represent the highest level of testing competence available and are independently audited by an accreditation body that is a signatory of the International Laboratory Accreditation Committee (ILAC) Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA).

Most established testing laboratories have been through the rigorous process of gaining accreditation to ISO Guide 17025, which is the relevant quality system standard for laboratories (similar to ISO 9001 for manufacturers). Accreditation is gained from independent third-party certifiers such as NATA or A2LA.

Apart from overall lab accreditation, many regulators rely on accredited reports to specific standards. This involves an accredited lab developing test methods, having all relevant test equipment, ensuring the equipment is calibrated (often externally by an accredited calibration lab) and demonstrating technical competence and proficiency in testing to specific standards, which are then listed on a lab’s scope of accreditation. An example of an accredited scope can be found here.

Below are the pros and cons of non-accredited testing:

Pros: Testing should be cheaper as there would be no accreditation costs, no quality assurance overheads and possibly no calibration of equipment costs.

Cons: No traceability or verified measurement uncertainty; reports usually not accepted by state or federal regulators or corporations; no international recognition; greater product liability; low level of confidence in the accuracy of the results; low standard of quality.