Advice on setting up an automotive test laboratory

[J_McDaniel]

Hi,

I've been reading the posting on the site for the past few days and it has been very informative. I was hoping you could provide me with some input.

The company I work for is looking into setting up a testing lab geared towards the automotive market. Most likely we would focus on quality assurance testing, resolution of quality issues, and conformance testing (PPAP submissions). At this stage we are trying to get an idea of what is involved, how large of a market there is, what are the most common tests/equipment required, and what level of accrediation/registration is required. I would greatly appreciate it if you could provide some input, given your role in the industry.

To give you a better understanding of our background we currently do a significant amount of work for the automotive industry, namely formability studies and trouble shooting for injection moulders, and have some manufacturing equipment (hydroforming press, stamping press, injection moulding machines) to support that.

Regards,

 

[Hershal]

J_McDaniel,

Some of our automotive guys may be better placed to help with the market, standards required, and similar information.

The automotive world may require for test labs registration to TS-16949 and/or accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025. Something to note for the future.

Hope this helps.

Hershal

 

[Howard Atkins]

I cannot help a great deal but if you want to supply to the automotive you MUST be ISO/IEC 17025 accredited.

In terms of the market I would imagine that in the initial stage you would work in the local area, contact the local chamber of commerce etc and find your potential customers, some you know ask them.
What do they need?
what are your strengths etc?
In general the normal rules for setting up a new business.

Good luck

 

[Caster]

Hi,
The company I work for is looking into setting up a testing lab geared towards the automotive market. Most likely we would focus on quality assurance testing, resolution of quality issues, and conformance testing (PPAP submissions). At this stage we are trying to get an idea of what is involved, how large of a market there is, what are the most common tests/equipment required, and what level of accrediation/registration is required. I would greatly appreciate it if you could provide some input, given your role in the industry.

To give you a better understanding of our background we currently do a significant amount of work for the automotive industry, namely formability studies and trouble shooting for injection moulders, and have some manufacturing equipment (hydroforming press, stamping press, injection moulding machines) to support that.Regards,

Hello

I think that if you stick to consulting and advice, you would not need any certifications. However, once you perform a test for product acceptance, here is what TS16949 says.

7.6.3.2 External laboratory

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External/commercial/independent laboratory facilities used for inspection, test or calibration services by the organization shall have a defined laboratory scope that includes the capability to perform the required inspection, test or calibration, and either
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· there shall be evidence that the external laboratory is acceptable to the customer, or
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· the laboratory shall be accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 or national equivalent.
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NOTE 1 Such evidence may be demonstrated by customer assessment, for example, or by customer-approved second-party assessment that the laboratory meets the intent of ISO/IEC 17025 or national equivalent.
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NOTE 2 When a qualified laboratory is not available for a given piece of equipment, calibration services may be performed by the equipment manufacturer. In such cases, the organization should ensure that the requirements listed in 7.6.3.1 have been met.
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May I suggest you contact Alcan Kingston labs to disscuss 17025. They went through it a few years ago, and are just really great to deal with. They have dealt with automotive clients forever so I'm sure you'd get some sound advice.

Good luck

 

[Ken K]

What I would probably do is take a look at the scopes of some of the labs located in the Detroit area to see what they are accredited to. You can pretty well see what equipment might be used and what test methods are requested the most.

Look for Entela, Detroit Testing, etc.

Here is a link to the scopes of A2LA accredited labs. You can also take a look at others such as AClass, LAB, etc.

(broken link removed)

I can't speak for other automotive suppliers, but we test everything
in-house. Our lab structure is set up in a way that if one location is not accredited to perform certain tests, another will be. For instance, our location performs all of the environmental testing as we are equiped with 5 environmental chambers included a drive-in chamber.

And when you look through the scopes you'll see lots of suppliers listed with in-house labs. With razor thin profit margins, outside test costs can be prohibitive and detrimental to the bottom line.

Good luck on setting up a lab.

 

[J_McDaniel]

Thank you all for your input! The extract from ISO/TS 16949 confirms what I suspected and the suggestion of using other lab scopes to get an idea of what common testing is out there is something I wish I had thought of!!!