Accreditation in high voltage testing

The European Community increasingly requires that products sold in the EC must comply with certain criteria regarding independent assessment, and that such assessment shall be carried out by bodies formally approved by Member States for this purpose. In the UK, where testing is involved, NAMAS accreditation will usually be taken as evidence that a laboratory meets the relevant requirements. Many countries in other parts of the world have also come to accept the reputation for reliability of NAMAS accreditation. Only a laboratory that holds NAMAS accreditation can issue a NAMAS certificate or report. Here, the author describes how a high-voltage test report carrying the NAMAS logo provides assurance to its recipient not only that the activities of the test laboratory have been assessed as described, but that the entire chain of traceability through calibration activities (both in-house at the test laboratory and at any external calibration laboratory) has also been assessed right back to national standards