(Vickers: West Yorkshire, England) -- A Leeds-based chemicals company is expected to become the first in the United Kingdom to develop a “gold standard” for the precise measurement of chemicals in products typically used by every individual and business in the United Kingdom.
Vickers Laboratories Ltd. is developing the technology and procedures to manufacture primary standards for pH (acid/alkaline) and conductivity measurements, which will be used by laboratories as a benchmark for the tests they are required to carry out.
The primary standards will be small bottles of chemical solution, precisely manufactured using scientific procedures laid down in internationally agreed documents. Every batch of the specially produced standard is expected to take around nine weeks to manufacture.
The drive toward precise chemical standards in the United Kingdom is being headed by The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS); this is the United Kingdom’s top tier of quality assessment. This organization is ultimately responsible for the assessment of quality in the United Kingdom, and in turn, accredits assessment organizations such as the British Standards Institute (BSI).
UKAS is currently active in the country’s laboratories to ensure that they provide reliable results by using high quality reference materials. Currently, U.K. laboratory standards are measured by conformance to:
However, if a laboratory is using reference materials prepared by an ISO Guide 34-accredited manufacturer, then all these elements are included and no further auditing evidence is required. On-going costs are reduced and certainty of results is greatly increased.
Under the new development, Vickers Laboratories Ltd. will become the first ISO Guide 34-registered manufacturer of pH standards and conductivity standards in the United Kingdom.
“It is important to understand that with consumers wanting increasingly high product quality worldwide, there is a need to have higher standards to measure against. The manufacture of these primary standards, which will be at the top of the quality pyramid, will give the United Kingdom a pre-eminent position in this drive,” says Julian Driver, Vickers Laboratories, CEO.
