The State Etalon Center of the Main State Service "Turkmenstandartlary" in the period from April 18 to April 20, 2023 successfully passed the international assessment of the quality management system and accreditation of the calibration laboratory for temperature measurement. International accreditation was carried out by the National Accreditation Body of Hungary (NAH) in terms of calibrating platinum resistance thermometers (SPRT-PRT) 25 ohm and 100 ohm in an extended temperature range from -40oC to +250oC with an expanded uncertainty of 0.011oC in accordance with the international standard ISO/IEC 17025:2017. The issued international accreditation certificate No. "NAH-2-0370/2023" dated June 22, 2023 has a validity period of 5 years.

The accreditation process is carried out in English.

To accredit the laboratory in the National Accreditation Body of Hungary, the employees of the State Etalon Center carried out the following work, namely:

- all documentation, and these are the documents of the quality management system and the calibration laboratory for measuring temperature of the State Reference Center, including work procedures (12), work instructions (14) and the corresponding quality management system applications (114) were translated into English.

- all reference equipment and measuring instruments used in the calibration in the temperature measurement laboratory of the State Reference Center were sent for calibration to the accredited calibration laboratory of the National Agency for Standards and Metrology of Georgia (GEOSTM) in Tbilisi.

- in the period from November 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, the calibration laboratory for temperature measurement of the State Reference Center successfully participated in bilateral interlaboratory comparisons with the laboratory of the State Temperature Standard of the Republic of Lithuania (TVEL), Vilnius, in the part "Implementation of the ITS-90 temperature scale" in the temperature range from -40.0oC to +30.0oC, where the Center participated as a pilot laboratory ( organizer of bilateral interlaboratory comparisons).

The National Accreditation Body of Hungary is a signatory to the ILAC MRA. ILAC - International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation, MRA - Multilateral Mutual Recognition Arrangement. ILAC carries out its activities with the aim of developing international cooperation and promoting the international trading system by recognizing test and calibration results obtained in laboratories in different countries, as well as establishing links between accreditation bodies around the world.

Recall that the initial international assessment of the quality management system and accreditation of the calibration laboratory for measuring the temperature of the State Reference Center was carried out by the Slovak National Accreditation Service SNAS on December 29, 2017 in the temperature range from -40.0oC to +30.0oC in accordance with the international standard ISO/IEC 17025:2005, and then in accordance with the updated international standard ISO/IEC 17025: 2017. Then an international accreditation certificate No. K-104 was issued, valid for 5 years. During the five-year accreditation cycle, the State Etalon Center underwent annual audits by SNAS.

Currently, the employees of the State Reference Center, together with representatives of the German Federal Institute of Physics and Technology (PTB), are working on a project to prepare two more laboratories for international accreditation - a laboratory for measuring mass and a laboratory for measuring small volume. They are preparing for the calibration of weights of classes E2, F1, F2, M1, M2 (in the range from 1 mg to 1 kg) and the calibration of balances (in the range of 1 mg to 500 mg), as well as single-channel pipette dispensers, respectively. The implementation of these projects will make it possible to calibrate laboratory equipment and measuring instruments in various sectors of the national economy of Turkmenistan with the issuance of international calibration certificates.

Kovus KASYMOV,

Chief Specialist

Scientific and Methodological Department

marketing and study

international practice

State Reference Center