Many times we come across questions such as whether we should have NABL Calibration Certificate with us or DAkkS Calibration Certificate? Why is so only NABL Calibration Certificate is available in INDIA but we can't get DAkkS Calibration Certificate? Does DAkkS Certificate has more importance or weightage in comparison to NABL Calibration Certificate? Answers to all the above questions lies here.
Before we proceed to all the answers to the above questions and queries, it is important for us to understand what is the basic difference between NABL and DAkkS.
NABL stands for National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories. It provides accreditation to Conformity Assessment Bodies in India. NABL is a Constituent Board of Quality Council of India and its accreditation system is established in accordance with ISO/IEC 17011. Furthermore, NABL Grants Accreditation to Testing Laboratories as per ISO/IEC 17025, Calibration Laboratories as per ISO/IEC 17025, Medical Laboratories as per ISO 15189, Proficiency Testing Providers (PTP) as per ISO/IEC 17043 and Reference Material Producers (RMP) as per ISO 17034.
The DAkkS is the national accreditation body of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is a central building block of the quality infrastructure and issues accreditations in the field of conformity assessment. The DAkkS acts in the legal mandate and in the interest of the state, the economy and the protection of society and the environment.
So to summarise, NABL is the national Accreditation body of India and DAkkS is the national Accreditation body of Germany. This provides answer to one of our above question. Why we get only NABL Calibration Certificate when in India. Since all the Calibration Labs in India are granted accreditation by NABL, they have permission to issue only NABL Calibration Certificate.
So does that mean if you have imported an instrument from Germany with DAkkS Calibration Certificate, is not acceptable in India? Our Answer is NO. Whether it is NABL or DAkkS both are acceptable in their respective countries. How is that possible? NABL and DAkkS both are the full members of ILAC (International Laboratory Accreditation Co-Operation) and APAC (Asia Pacific Accreditation Co-Operation) and regularly take parts in their meetings.
To understand this in a better way; with an objective to ensure the acceptance of test/ calibration results issued by the accredited conformity assessment bodies (CAB) across the borders, NABL maintains linkages with the international bodies- ILAC and APAC where other top accredited bodies like DAkkS are already the members.
NABL is Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) signatory to ILAC as well as APAC for the accreditation programs – Testing and Calibration (ISO/IEC 17025), Medical (ISO 15189), Proficiency Testing Providers (PTP) (ISO/IEC 17043) and Reference material producers (RMP) (ISO 17034).
Such international arrangements/ MRA are based on peer evaluation and acceptance of other MRA Partner accreditation systems. MRA facilitate acceptance of test/ calibration results between countries which MRA partners represent.
This ensures that NABL Certificates issued in INDIA are acceptable all over the world just like DAkkS and other top accredited bodies in the world. Hence, it doesn't matter if you have DAkkS Calibration Certificate with you or NABL, both are accepted in equal capacities.