What is ENAC accreditation?

What is ENAC?

The quality of a product, a service or a production process is usually validated by a measurement, whatever the sector of activity considered. Therefore, calibration of the equipment used to perform this task is essential to ensure the reliability of the measurement.

The use of an accredited calibration guarantees traceability to the International System of Units and confidence in the result.

The Entidad Nacional de Acreditación (ENAC) is the entity designated by the Spanish Government to operate in Spain as the only National Accreditation Body, in application of Regulation (EC) No. 765/2008 which regulates the operation of accreditation in Europe and which is based on five fundamental principles:

 

Activities that are credited:

• Essay
• Calibration
• Clinical Laboratories
• Biobanks
• Inspection
• Certification of management systems
• Product Certification
• Certification of persons
• Control bodies and notified bodies
• Validation and verification
• Greenhouse Gas Verifiers
• Environmental verifiers

Other technical services that are accredited:

• Good Laboratory Practice (GLP)
• Technical support for scheme development
• Training

 

Importance of correct calibration

Incorrect measurement results can have serious consequences for manufacturing processes and additional costs for companies. Therefore, confidence in the measurements made is essential and requires calibration of the equipment used, carried out by a competent and impartial body. An accredited calibration ensures that the calibrated equipment provides reliable and traceable measurements to the International System of Units.

Thanks to multilateral agreements, the calibration certificate issued is recognized in a large number of countries around the world, facilitating trade in products and services.
Recognition of competence in calibrating equipment is a means of winning new business, as many of the organisational standards used by companies require traceability of measurements to the International System of Units.

The accredited laboratories cover the different areas of calibration: temperature, electrical, mechanical, optical, dimensional, among others, in a wide range of magnitudes and equipment, from the most common (weighing instruments, presses, electrical meters) to the most specific or innovative as video signals, thermometric cameras, fiber optic analyzers, which provide their services to all types of industries.

The European reference standard for the accreditation of a calibration laboratory is UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17025.

International validity of the quality criteria:

How are these agreements established and maintained?
The international recognition agreements relevant to Spain and other European countries are established and managed by 3 organisations:

1.The International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC)

This organization is involved in the mutual recognition of accreditations for laboratories, inter-laboratory comparison bodies, reference material producers and inspection bodies, with a worldwide scope of recognition.

2.The International Accreditation Forum (IAF)
This global organization is involved in the mutual recognition of accreditations of certification and verification bodies, with a worldwide scope of recognition.

3.The European co-operation for Accreditation (EA)

 

In addition, information on this issue can be found at the following agencies:
– EURAMET:(www.euramet.org) you can find guidelines for the calibration of certain instruments.
– C.E.M. Spanish Metrology Centre.(http://www.cem.es)

 

Many countries have their national accreditation bodies with a similar operation to ENAC. In the United States, for example, there are different organizations depending on the areas of standardization.

List of national accreditation bodies:

Entity	Country
Pakistan National Accreditation Council – PNAC	Pakistan
National Standardization Council of Thailand – NSC	Thailand
French Accreditation Committee – COFRAC	France
ENAC	Spain
Czech Accreditation Institute – CAI	Czech Republic
DANAK	Denmark
Bundesministerium f. Digitizing u. Wirtschaftsstandort	Austria
Belgian Organisation for Accreditation – BELAC	Belgium
Deutsche Akkreditierungsstelle GmbH – DAkkS	Germany
Hellenic Accreditation System S.A. – ESYD	Greece
Irish National Accreditation Board – INAB	Ireland
National Accreditation System – ACCREDIA	Italy
Dutch Accreditation Council – RvA	Netherlands
Norwegian Accreditation – NA	Norway
IPAC	Portugal
Swedish Board for Accred.& Conformity Assessment – SWEDAC	Sweden
Swiss Accreditation Service – SAS	Switzerland
Turkish Accreditation Agency – TÜRKAK	Turkey
The Finnish Accreditation Service – FINAS	Finland
Slovenian Accreditation- SA	Slovenia
Polish Centre for Accreditation – PCA	Poland
Argentine Accreditation Organization – OAA	Argentina
Korea Accreditation System – KAS	Republic of Korea
Uruguayan Accreditation Organization – OUA	Uruguay
Taiwan Accreditation Foundation – TAF	Taiwan / Chinese Taipei
CNAS	China
JAS-ANZ	Australia & New Zealand
INMETRO	Brazil
Ecuadorian Accreditation Service – SAE	Ecuador
Mexican Entity of Accreditation, a.c. – EMA	Mexico
South Africa National Accreditation System – SANAS	South Africa
United Kingdom Accreditation Service – UKAS	United Kingdom
American National Standards Institute – ANSI	USA
National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB)	India
Bureau of Accreditation – BoA	Vietnam
National Institute of Quality – Directorate of Accreditation – INACAL – DA	Peru
National Accreditation Organization of Colombia – ONAC	Colombia
Japan Accreditation Board – JAB	Japan
Costa Rican Accreditation Entity – ECA	Costa Rica
IOAS Inc. (IOAS)	USA
International Accreditation Service – IAS	USA

 

 

 

info
https://www.iafcertsearch.org/accreditation-body/a34f9415-eac5-5055-944f-8d95e17ba5b5