Upgrading, Improvement/ Expansion Of FPRDI Testing Laboratories
This program involves upgrading/modernizing the ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accredited and non-accredited laboratories to offer continuous quality service to customers. FPRDI aspires for all its testing laboratories to be ISO/IEC-compliant to acquire sound management and recognition for the technical competence for all the type of tests it undertakes. This should be done for the expansion of current services of FPRDI Testing Laboratories which presently include only the testing laboratories of Pulp and Paper, Plywood and Furniture. With this program, other testing laboratories of FPRDI such as FPRDI Pulp and Paper Chemical Testing, Herbarium and Xylarium, Chemistry, Pallets and Packaging, Fire Testing, Calibration, Wood preservation, Wood Anatomy, and Physical and Mechanical Testing, Biomass and Energy Testing and Structural Testing laboratories will be included and prepared for ISO/IEC 17025: 2005 accreditation. The proposed inclusion of other testing services of FPRDI would add income to the Institute and at the same time cater to industry requirements that testing laboratory should be complete in its facilities.
Accreditation of a testing laboratory provides formal recognition to its competence. It is regarded both nationally and internationally as a reliable indicator of technical competence. It helps laboratories determine whether they are performing their work correctly and to appropriate standards and provides them with a benchmark for maintaining that competence. It is an effective marketing tool for testing, calibration and measurement organizations.
The FPRDI Testing Laboratories under the ISO 17025:2005 accreditation, 12 January 2012 – 11 January 2017, such as the Pulp and Paper, Plywood and Furniture are the only ones offering such testing services in the Philippines. The FPRDI pulp and paper testing laboratory (FPPTL) was the first FPRDI testing laboratory to be accredited on 11 June 2007. The same year when the DOST Secretary directed FPRDI through FPPTL, test all pulp, paper and paperboard products. This is in-connection with the R & D in pulp and paper technology that is being undertaken in the Institute since its inception in the late 50s.
The FPRDI Testing Laboratories (FTLs) are now recognized by the furniture, plywood and pulp and paper industry as competent testing laboratories in the country. This is due to its modern testing facilities acquired from abroad and competent personnel that provides reliable and accurate test results delivered on time. It is expected that the quality, administrative and technical procedure governing the Laboratory’s operations will be continuously improved/enhanced for the sustenance of the 5-year accreditation of FTLs, meet the Institute’s commitment for the implementation of continuous development and improvement for the effectiveness of the management system of FTLs and provide customers with judicious and accurate test data delivered on time in accordance with mutually agreed terms and conditions conforming to the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2005.
And FPRDI should establish its own internal calibration laboratory to cater to the needs of the different laboratories within the Institute. Also, this service may be extended to forest-based industry which is also required by DTI that their process gauges’/measuring instruments are regularly calibrated. The ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accredited and non- accredited FPRDI Laboratories are required by ISO 9001:2008 accreditation bodies to have its testing and process measuring instruments calibrated regularly. For the Institute, calibration of its testing and process measuring instruments always present a burden due to budget constraints. Considering that almost all technology processes being developed requires measurements and the product output requires property testing.
