ALICANTE. 18 October 2021. The CINDAL laboratories, ALUDIUM’s R&D centre, have had their ISO/IEC 17025 standard accreditation renewed. The external audit has been recently carried out by the Entidad Nacional de Acreditación (the Spanish National Accreditation Entity (ENAC)) without any “Major Non-Conformity” findings.The main aim of ISO 17025 is to ensure the technical competence and reliability of analytical results. This certification provides the inescapable requirements that testing and calibration laboratories must meet, enabling the unification of quality criteria.
“The pursuit of excellence through quality is a key principle within ALUDIUM. The renewal of ISO 17025 certification is another step in our commitment to the excellence of our products and processes since it ensures that all the pillars on which analytical quality rests are strong“, says Catalina Fernández, director of CINDAL.
With CINDAL holding on to its ISO 17025 CERTIFICATION, ALUDIUM has ensured that it is upholding robust analytical systems capable of ensuring the quality of all the products it manufactures. “Our customers are increasingly demanding narrower specification limits that can only be sustained if you have modern analytical systems, appropriately calibrated and used by competent personnel. The quality of the certification systems of our production plants is continuously held up against those of CINDAL laboratories”, reveals Carlos Pardo, ALUDIUM’s Industrial Product Leader. “Any deviation is quickly analysed and addressed. ISO 17025 certified analytical practices are best practice and shared among all the company’s laboratories. This ensures that ALUDIUM has the know-how and the analytical systems necessary to monitor all alloys and products manufactured,” adds the manager.
A decade emphasising quality
The CINDAL R&D centre in Alicante (Spain) is one of the world’s leading centres for aluminium research. Its expert team has specialists in all areas of technology, products, and processes. In addition to having the responsibility of optimising ALUDIUM’s own products and processes, CINDAL R&D provides valuable support and advice to our customers.
The ISO 17025 certification was achieved for the first time in 2011 and, since then, CINDAL laboratories’ quality and technical competence system is externally audited every year by ENAC. This accreditation is very valuable for ALUDIUM since ENAC is recognised by ILAC (the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation). “This fact is a boost for CINDAL laboratories’ international recognition since, although our innovation centre basically serves our plants and direct customers, it also receives accredited analytical requests from institutions and companies around the world,” explains Pardo.
ISO-IATF certifications
ISO/IEC 17025 is also used to support ISO-IATF certifications. The aim is to ensure the analytical quality of the certification processes of chemical composition and mechanical properties of the plants in Alicante, Amorebieta and Castelsarrasin since these properties will be directly related to the key and safety features of the final product for the automotive market.
Commitment to our customers’ expectations
ALUDIUM has assumed, as an essential part of the company’s general policy, the search for excellence through Quality. ALUDIUM is committed to ensuring our customers’ satisfaction by supplying safe and reliable products and achieving verifiable goals through continuously improving its management processes. This is reflected in the following commitments:
- ZERO safety incidents.
- ZERO environmental breaches.
- ZERO defects.
CINDAL’s Quality Policy is fully aligned with the company’s Quality Policy. In this system, CINDAL’s accredited laboratories are key players and assume the following responsibilities, which involve both the participation of the Technology Directorate and that of the remaining employees in both laboratories:
- Develop good professional practices aimed at seeking quality in tests, calibrations or other services provided to customers.
- Compliance with UNE-EN-ISO/IEC 17025 Standard applicable to accredited activities.
- Ensure the impartiality, independence and confidentiality of the technical activities carried out by laboratory staff.
- Search for Continuous Improvement, through proper system maintenance and reviews, by adopting the following principles:
- Search for customer satisfaction.
- Regular review of goals to detect opportunities for improvement.
- Awareness, training, and adequate information of employees on actions aimed at improving products, delivery, and service.
- Identify risks associated with laboratory activities and establish actions to eliminate them or minimise their impact.
