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35 Years of Maintaining UKAS 0001 Accreditation Celebrated
ESG, the UK’s leading provider of testing, inspection and compliance services, is proud to announce that it has once again completed reassessment of its United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) 0001 schedule, being accredited to ISO/IEC 17025:2005 for construction materials, oils, coatings, metallurgy and energy testing.
ESG was the first laboratory to gain National Measurement Accreditation Service (NAMAS) accreditation no 0001 (the forerunner to UKAS), on the 29th March 1982. 35 years on, the company, which now offers comprehensive testing, inspection and compliance solutions in Infrastructure, the Built Environment and Energy & Waste, has bolstered its quality control further and now has 27 UKAS accredited sites, under seven UKAS accreditation numbers in the UK.
The flexible scope under UKAS 0001 allows ESG to quickly establish site laboratories to conduct construction materials testing and sampling activities, as well as energy services preparation and testing of fuels. For example, ESG’s most recent site laboratory was developed from an empty building to an accredited laboratory in just six weeks. In addition, the same accreditation enables ESG to update currently accredited test methods to the latest versions, meaning clients can be assured that the most recent and relevant methodologies will be used. Furthermore, the company can transfer currently accredited test methods between accredited locations.
With such a wide range of testing, inspection and compliance services, it is imperative that ESG retains its UKAS accreditations to provide assurance to its clients that the results they are receiving are robust. Covered in the UKAS 0001 scope are over 300 tests, spread across 21 laboratories nationally, as well as a flexible scope for mobile laboratories. A wide range of materials from concrete, to coatings, soils to aggregates and steel to solid recovered fuel are analysed under this schedule, with tests including, curing cubic specimens for strength tests in hardened concrete, loss on ignition of waste fines, loose bulk density with damp aggregates and tensile and rebend tests on reinforcing steel bar.
Philip Ball, group technical director at ESG commented:
“Quality is an integral part of ESG’s business. Clients need to be assured that the data that we provide them with, which is so integral to their projects, is both robust and accurate. Retaining UKAS 0001 for 35 years is a huge achievement and testament to the hard work of our skilled Quality Assurance Team.”