ACTIVITIES OF THE NATIONAL COOPERATION FOR LABORATORY ACCREDITATION (NACLA) AND THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF STANDARDS LABORATORIES INTERNATIONAL (NCSLI)
Chester Franklin
Abstract:
NCSLI was established in 1961 to, “promote cooperative efforts for solving the common problems faced by measurement laboratories”. NACLA was established in 1998 to coordinate laboratory accreditation activities within the United States and to serve as the U.S. link to the worldwide accreditation system. NACLA ccomplishes its mission through various committees whose combined efforts lead to the evaluation of accreditation bodies (ABs) and granting recognition to ABs that are found to meet the international standard for competence; ISO/IEC Guide 58. NCSLI accomplishes its goals through the efforts of various technical committees that publish such documents as Recommended Practices, and through an accredited writing committee that produces documents for release as U.S. National Standards. The purpose of this paper is to present, in detail, the activities of these two organizations, in cooperation with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and relate their efforts to one of the goals of the international metrology community: mutual recognition of measurements.
