AMETEK MOCON, a leading global provider of instruments and services for testing, measuring and analyzing a variety of gases, has achieved ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation for its Minneapolis analytical testing laboratory.

The accreditation is for water vapor and oxygen transmission rate testing of a variety of flexible, semi-rigid and rigid plastic structures. These structures—ranging from monolayer to complex multilayer coextrusions—are used to package a wide variety of food, beverage, pharmaceutical and personal care products that require critical performance attributes to meet shelf-life deliverables.

“With brand owners subjecting themselves to more rigorous quality processes, the same expectations are being pushed further upstream. Finished goods companies increasingly are looking for testing facilities that can deliver precise test and calibration data on a consistent basis. Laboratory accreditation is highly regarded internationally as a reliable indicator of technical competence and our test lab is compliant,” said Joel Fischer, lab manager, AMETEK MOCON.

MOCON’s ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation confirms the laboratory’s ability to produce precise and accurate test and calibration data, including traceability to national standards, proficiency with recognized test methods (e.g., ASTM, TAPPI, JIS), test equipment maintenance, testing environment and sampling quality, test method validity/suitability, quality assurance of test and calibration data, sample handling and transport, and laboratory staff competence.

“Another benefit of working with an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited facility is that the standard is recognized internationally. For multinational companies, or for those which market their products globally, this reduces or eliminates the need for retesting in another country,” Fischer added.

In addition to testing structures for packaging applications, the laboratory also provides barrier testing services for OLEDs used in a broad variety of electronic applications and photovoltaics, commonly used in solar panels.

AMETEK MOCON is a leading provider of detectors, instruments, systems and consulting services to research laboratories, production facilities, and quality control and safety departments in the medical, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, packaging, environmental, oil and gas and other industries worldwide.

AMETEK MOCON is a business unit of the Process & Analytical Instruments division of AMETEK, Inc., a leading global manufacturer of electronic instruments and electromechanical devices with annual sales of approximately $4.0 billion.