Denmark’s national accreditation body – DANAK’s mission is ”to contribute towards ensuring and promoting the credibility of Danish companies. One of these companies is DBI, who has obtained six of these coveted DANAK accreditations.

The first DBI department or function to achieve this recognition was the laboratory, which has been accredited in accordance with the standard DS/EN ISO/ IEC 17025: General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories. The accreditation is registered as number 12 on the list of accredited laboratories in Denmark. To date, just 500 of these accreditations have been issued, and the DBI laboratory therefore has one of the first laboratory accreditations in the country.

DBI has recently had accreditation number 12 renewed for their laboratories at Jernholmen in Hvidovre. Here, the accreditation has been changed to incorporate elements of the latest version of the laboratory standard.

The transfer to the new version of DS/EN ISO/IEC 17025 took place following the annual inspection by DANAK, during which DBI’s laboratories are assessed on the standard’s accreditation criteria and DANAK’s technical regulations and guidelines.

A practical requirement “In relation to the single European market, in practice, accreditation is a necessary qualification in order to operate as an authorised body in accordance with EU directives”, explains department manager Dan Bluhme, who is responsible for DBI’s laboratory.

“This still applies, even if the requirement for accreditation is not written into the directives that DBI works with, but it is expected that the requirement for accreditation of the authorising bodies will be incorporated into the directives as they are eventually revised. This is something that we welcome as it will level the playing field for authorising bodies and producers.”
 
“This official recognition has not come by itself”, says Dan Bluhme, who elaborates:

“Accreditation of a laboratory requires a considerable effort in terms of maintaining quality control systems, calibration of equipment, training of staff etc. and ensuring that the laboratory remains operational constantly and working within the framework of the accreditation criteria applicable at all times.
 
“Our accreditation has lead to acceptance of the laboratory’s test reports by Danish and foreign certification bodies, classification societies and authorities. In other countries, first and foremost, because the accreditation standard is an international standard, but also because DANAK is a member of the ILAC cooperation organisation, who accredits laboratories globally, thereby adding weight to its accreditations outside Denmark’s borders.”