Leading cement laboratory achieves standards accreditation anew

The country’s leading and most established cement testing laboratory has once again achieved recognition for its competence as a cement testing laboratory.

The Cement Testing Center (CTC), formerly Cement Central Laboratory having been assessed and found conforming to the general requirements of PNS ISO/ IEC 17025 : 2000, The General Requirements for Competence of the Testing and Calibration Laboratories and the BPSLAS conditions for accreditation.

The Certificate of Accreditation covering the field of construction and material testing, cement and cement raw and in-process materials was awarded by the Bureau of Product Standards Laboratory Accreditation Scheme (BPSLAS), Department of Trade and Industry.

CTC manager, Engr. Noel G. dela Cruz said that CTC has started its preparation for this accreditation in 2001, applied for assessment in second quarter of 2003 and passed the rigid scrutiny of the internationally established standards evaluation December of the same year.

Dela Cruz said that CTC acts like a standards watchdog for cement consumers, making sure that it conducts continuous cement quality monitoring of all cement produce in the country. CTC also works in partnership with the Bureau of Product Standards (BPS) of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) by providing them with unbiased testing of all locally produced and imported cements.

As an established organization conducting cement testing, CTC plays an important role in making sure that various cement products of different cement manufacturers meet not only with PNS but also with other internationals standards like the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM).

Cement quality monitoring involves testing coded randomly sampled cement samples from various market sources in the country to assure unbiased results and ensure compliance to the Philippine National Standards.

Before the recent accreditation, the CTC, then referred to as ‘Central LAB’ has been distinguished with continuous years of standards accreditation in the field of cement testing conforming to the requirements of PNS ISO/IEC Guide 25: 1994.