Overview of BIS Labs

Certification Marketing Schemes, as a guarantee for conveying conformity of products to the quality levels prescribed in the standards, is invariably managed by the National Standards Bodies (NSBs). Measurement and testing is a vital link between standardization and quality control and hence needs to be handled under precise conditions in order to judge conformity of the sample to the requirements of the standard.

For NSBs particulary from the developing countries, intending to deal with measurement and testing, certain basic doubts may arise, such as :

The growth and development of BIS's own laboratory network over the past two decades may provide a case study seeking answers, at least in parts, to some of these questions.

BIS's Certification Marketing Activity was started in 1953 and the samples drawn under the scheme were testing in any one of the large number of testing laboratories available widely spread out in the country. The products requiring to be tested were of a wide variety such as food products, chemicals, electrical appliances, textiles, metallurgical products and so on. The chain of newly set up national research laboratories managed by the various govt authorities, or by private organization available for the purpose served the needs adequately atleast in the beginning. As the Certification Marketing Scheme grew in number a few possible situations required consideration, such as :

Hence a decision was made in 1962 that BIS should have its own laboratory. The purpose was to supplement the testing work of the outside laboratories and at the same time to introduce systems for effective management of laboratories progressively. Testing work started on a modest basis at the BIS headquarters was soon found to be inadequate to match the growth of the Certification Marketing Scheme spreading out all over the country. By the late sixties, therefore, it was decided that BIS should also set up and develop testing facilities at its regional offices.

Since 1970, the Bureau has witnessed a growth in its own capacity to handle an increased number of samples amidst its central and regional laboratories. But the dependence on the outside laboratories has continued. Since the number of samples continued to increase along with the variety of products brought under certification as part of the measures for consumer protection, the BIS's testing organization required stupendous efforts towards growth at both the vertical and the horizontal levels. At the same time, a well designed organizational network was necessary to coordinate the testing work handled by a large number of laboratories as part of the quality assurance system under the bis's Certification Marking Scheme.

Today BIS has a a well -equipped Central Laboratory at Sahibabad just across the border of Delhi, four regional laboratories at Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai and Mohali (near Chandigarh) and branch laboratories at Bangalore, Patna and Guwahati. While the Central Lab and the regional labs, established with central assistance, became fully operational in their own premises in 1982, the labs at Bangalore and Patna were set up with the assistance of the respective state governments. Major facilities available in BIS Central Lab and Regional Labs are :

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Testing Facility

Northern Regional Office Lab

Eastern Regional Office Lab

Western Regional Office Lab

Southern Regional Office Lab

Bangalore Branch Office Lab

Patna Branch Office Lab

Guwahati Branch Office Lab

Central Lab

Electrical Lab
1 Domestic Electric Appliances

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2 Cables and conductors

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3 Wiring accessories including switchgear

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4 Electrical motors and fans

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Mechanical Lab
1 Physical testing and metrology

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2 Gas cylinders, valves and regulators

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3 LPG and kerosene oil applicances

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4 Builders hardware

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5 Sanitarywares

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6 Pipes and fittings
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7 Water supply fittings Water Meter

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8 Timber and timber products

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9 Containers

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10 Fire fighting equipment

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11 Plant protection equipment (sprayers)

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12 Pumps

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13 Steel wires, wire rope, chain pulley blocks

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14 Cement and concrete test facilities

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15 Medical instruments and accessories

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Chemical Lab
1 Agricultural and food products

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2 Microbiological testing

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3 Paints and pigments

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4 Stationery and packaging material

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5 Textile products

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6 Food additives, food colours

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7 Pesticides

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8 Miscellaneous organic/inorganic chemicals

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9 Elemental analysis, other physiochemical analysis

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10 Petroleum products

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To meet the additional testing load on account of certain specialized testing not presently available with BIS and to meet any excess of testing load, number of laboratories including those from research and teaching institutions, govt and private testing houses have been recognized by the Bureau.

The Central Laboratory (CL) of BIS has basically four wings (Chemical Lab, Electrical Lab, Mechanical Lab and Calibration Lab) along with support facilities such as workshop, sample cell, etc. In addition to testing of samples for a requirement calling for sophisticated test facilities, CL has a number of special functions :

Calibration facilities

It is imperative for the availability of the testing activity that a uniform measurement system is established to ensure reproducibility of data and its traceability to national as well as international standards. Calibration of testing their direction, and is part of the Quality System followed by BIS Laboratories.

In view of the large quantum of calibration work involved, in house calibration facility has been created at BIS laboratories for the calibration of most of the instruments. This facility also helps BIS labs to verify the test results without loss of time by repeat calibration in-house when required.

The various instruments/equipment that can be calibrated at BIS Central Laboratory and Regional labs are given below :

BIS Central Laboratory

BIS Regional Laboratories

The calibrators available with BIS Laboratories for the calibration of measuring instruments are periodically calibrated at NPL or any other laboratory having traceability of measurement to NPL.

NABL Accreditation

calibration facilities at BIS Central Laboratory has obtained NABL accreditation in both electrical as well as mechanical fields.

Quality Assurance Activity

BIS Central Laboratory participated in the proficiency testing for tensile testing of metals as per ASTM A370-95 conducted by NABL under Asia Pacific Laboratory Accrediation Cooperation (APLAC) and was rated as "excellent".

BIS Central Laboratory also participated in the proficiency testing programme for testing of Milk Powder conducted by Telarc, New Zealand, under APLAC and was rated "excellent".

NABL has deisngated BIS as the nodal agency to conduct proficiency testing for food items for NABL accredited labs in India. Besides, BIS is also organizing proficiency testing for cement for its recognized labs.

Accreditation of BIS Labs

BIS Central Laboratory has obtained accreditation under the NCTCF programme of the Department of Science and Technology. Government of India, for its Mechanical and Food & Chemical labs in May, 1992.

BIS Central Laboratory has obtained fresh recognition under the revised criteria of the National Board for Accreditation of Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) successor to the NCTCF Programme, for its Chemical, Microbiological, Mechanical and Electrical testing and mechanical & electrical calibration laboratories in 1996.

Four Regional Laboratories at Mumbai, Chennei, Kolkatta and Mohali (Near Chandigarh) and Branch Office Laboratory at Bangalore are also NABL accredited.

Human Resource Development

From the very beginning of the establishment of its labs, BIS has been providing training in product testing techniques to the testing personnel in the industry specifically those belonging to BIS licensees and applicants, and to the foreign nationals under various international training programmes, besides training to its own testing personnel

Research and Development Activities

Research and development activities in BIS labs relate to methods validation, investigative testing and test method development. A number of R&d projects have been executed by BIS labs in the above areas. R&D policy for short term as well as long terms plans has been drawn by BIS for systematic development and upgradation of Research and Development activities of BIS

Future Plans

BIS labs had undertaken massive modernisation of its test facilities in various specialized areas availing Plan funds as well as loan from the World Bank which is continuing

The areas identified for such modernization are Electrical Appliances, Processed Food and Safety Helmets and Safety Glass for which specific projects have been taken up for implementation

Some new areas identified for creation are testing facilities are toys, packaged mineral water and cosmetics for which BIS is likely to take up the role of referral laboratory on behalf of the Drugs Controller.

BIS Lab Recognition Scheme

BIS chain of laboratories notwithstanding, the quantum of samples and diversity of products under the Product Certification Scheme necessitates use of outside labs in many fields to effectively support the Certification Scheme.

BIS has been operating a Laboratory Recognition Scheme for several years under which the number of labs recognized had grown to around 280.

The criteria for recognition has now been aligned with NABL criteria, ISO/IEC Guide 25 & 58 and EN 45001, and all recognized labs have been asked to implement quality systems as per the revised criteria. The revised BIS Laboratory Recognition Scheme, 1995 has come into effect from 01 April 1998 and currently BIS is utilizing nearly 70 labs.

 

© Computer Center BIS 2001-2002