Is ISO 17025 Accreditation Necessary For Aviation Repair Station Labs?

[sgribako]

Hello,
I am looking through the requirements of the EASA, FAA which are concerning measuring and test equipment, but I did not find directly that metrology lab of a aviation repair station must be ISO17025-accredited. There are only common requirements. What are your opinions and what status of metrology lab's do you have?
Thanks.

 

[Hershal]

sgribako,

Someone in the aviation community will likely reply soon and have a better answer.....perhaps Graeme.

I am unaware of any dynamic requirement from FAA, but I suspect they would not oppose accreditation either.

Hershal

 

[corollax]

We are a repair station with an in-house cal lab and the use of ISO17025 accredited cal labs is recent explicit (new) requirement by our local airworthiness authority. So far this is not a policy of FAA, EASA etc so your lab (and my lab) processes will still be subjected to audits by them.

 

[suhananyc]

Re: Is ISO17025-accreditation necessary condition for lab's of aviation repair statio

Hi Everyone,

Regarding above topic

As per EASA Part 145 Doc # UG.CAO.00132-001 it clearly stated on calibration laboratory to be accredited under ISO17025. However there is no mention on the requirement for in-house calibration laboratory. Does an in-house calibration lab need to be accredited under ISO17025?

 

[dwperron]

Re: Is ISO17025-accreditation necessary condition for lab's of aviation repair statio

If your in-house calibration lab calibrates tooling, according to EASA Part 145 it says:

10.2.3. Calibration in accredited laboratories
In order to comply with Part-145.A.40 (b) the maintenance organisation shall ensure that:
(a) tooling are periodically calibrated in accordance with the manufacturers’ published standards and recommendations.
(b) where no recommendations for calibration are published or where the calibration methods or standards are not specified, calibration is carried out in accordance with the requirements of the ISO 10012. This standard details both the generic requirements and guidance for the implementation of measurement management systems.


Both (a) and (b) above shall require the tooling to be calibrated in a test laboratory accredited to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard, by an accreditation body acceptable to the European Aviation Safety Agency.
Only a laboratory accredited by an “Accreditation body” which is signatory of the ILAC MRA is considered acceptable to EASA, considering that in this case traceability through the assessment and accreditation process under ISO/IEC 17025 has already been established.

It states that the lab calibrating the tooling must be 17025 accredited via an ILAC AB. Doesn't matter if internal or external, it must be accredited.

 

[suhananyc]

Hi dwperron

Thanks for the reply and input. I was previously in manufacturing and the requirement was to have ISO17025 for items we send out and not required for in-house calibration lab

 

[AEOS_QA]

This specific guidance document currently only applies to EASA Foreign repair stations but certainly adds a huge extra cost and burden as calibration in labs accredited to 17025 accredited via an ILAC AB typically are typically much more expensive.

 

[dwperron]

Welcome to doing business in a regulated global market.

The idea behind this is that it may cost extra to obtain the services of an ISO 17025 accredited lab, but you are building in the benefit of having an internationally recognized organization with a professional team auditing and approving the capabilities of the provider. That removes the cost of your having the cost and effort of auditing and approving suppliers from your budget.

 

[suhananyc]

This specific guidance document currently only applies to EASA Foreign repair stations but certainly adds a huge extra cost and burden as calibration in labs accredited to 17025 accredited via an ILAC AB typically are typically much more expensive.

AEOS_QA,

Where can I get the statement saying this only applies to foreign repair station?any idea why is this requirement only applies to EASA foreign repair station?