Accreditation in Britain : UKAS (formerly BCS and later NAMAS)
Legal
Notice: The logo
used on this page is a registered trade mark and used with permission.
History
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Until August 1995 the NAMAS acronym stood for the National
Measurement Accreditation Service and was the division
at the UK National Physical Laboratory responsible for accreditation
of testing and calibration laboratories. The agency was formed
in 1985 by the amalgamation of the British Calibration
Service which was established in 1966 and the National
Testing Laboratory Accreditation Scheme which began in
1981.
Following the British government's decisions in 1994 to migrate NAMAS
and NPL away from public ownership, and to merge the former
NAMAS with the NACCB (whose responsibilities included regulation
of the quality system registrars), the combined agency is
now known as UKAS -- the United Kingdom Accreditation
Service. NAMAS continued to be used for a while but meaning
National Accreditation of Measurement and Sampling during
which time calibration and test reports remained known as
NAMAS Certificates. |
The organization's accreditation number
must be shown under the logo.
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Accreditation of Calibration and Testing
Services
UKAS has around 60 technical staff involved in accrediting
calibration and test labs but, in addition, calls upon over
300 independent assessors who are expert in the particular
activity being assessed. Accreditation is open to private
and publicly owned facilities in Britain and other countries
and by the year 2000 there were about 500 listed calibration
labs., while the number of testing labs. exceeded 1500. Calibration
accreditation is offered in the following fields:
Electrical
|
Dimensional
|
Mass |
Fiber optic
|
Optical
|
Pressure |
Temperature
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Humidity
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Accelerometry |
Thermal Conductivity
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Chemical analysis
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Magnetic flux |
Hardness
|
Acoustical
|
Radiological |
Fluids
(flow/viscosity/density)
|
Force
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Certificate Validity
It is in the interest of those seeking calibration or test services
to clearly specify that UKAS Certificates are required for the work
done by the accredited laboratories being used. Accreditation by
UKAS provides assurance that the service provided has been technically
validated and that working practices and quality control measures
comply with rigorous international standards. Calibration certificates
issued by laboratories under their accreditation are identifiable
by inclusion of the UKAS logo and are recognized internationally
as having equivalent authority to that provided by a national measurement
standards bureau.
Accredited laboratories meet the requirements of ISO/IEC17025
-- the global standard for the competence of calibration and
testing labs.. The standard states that compliance also fulfills
the principal requirements of the ISO9001 quality management standard
as relevant to the calibration or test activity. Laboratories are
subject to an on-going program of surveillance and capability reassessment,
including regular proficiency testing by measurement audit.
UKAS is widely recognized internationally, through bilateral
and multilateral mutual recognition agreements and through
membership of the European cooperation for Accreditation
(EA). UKAS are signatories to the ILAC Arrangement that mutually recognizes calibration or testing certificates issued by accredited facilities in a large number of countries around the globe.
What does this mean?
Mainly that certificates and reports issued by accredited facilities
in each country are accepted as having equivalent integrity. For
example, a calibration certificate issued under the DKD (German)
scheme would be accepted as valid in Britain and a UKAS certificate
would similarly be acceptable to the French authorities.
Accreditation of Certification Bodies
UKAS is also responsible for accrediting Certification Bodies to
perform assessments and award certification against the following
European and international standards:
- EN45011 regarding product conformity
- EN45012 regarding suppliers' quality
management systems (usually in regard to ISO9000)
- EN45012 in relation to certification
of organizations' environmental management practices (usually
for compliance with BS7750 and ISO14001)
- EN45013 in relation to certification
of the competence of personnel
Further information may be obtained from:
Agilent Technologies
Be sure to review our own UKAS accreditation, representing some
of the best commercial calibration capabilities available.
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