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The CSIR's Dr Liesbeth Botha and Cermalab's Bruce Berger signed the collaboration agreement that formalised the two organisations' work and effectively created the only unbiased high-temperature materials laboratory in southern Africa
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With the official signing of a collaboration agreement the CSIR and Cermalab formalised the work they are doing together at Southern Africa's only unbiased high-temperature materials laboratory.
At this laboratory refractories and ceramics can be tested and characterised to international standards. The CSIR and Cermalab each ran independent laboratories of this nature for many years and decided to join forces, obtain international accreditation and pool their resources.
"There are now a great many opportunities opening up for this kind of laboratory. For instance, the emerging national strategy in the nuclear energy arena creates possible applications for a high-temperature materials laboratory, while its ability to be used in tertiary education and research is also opening doors. Of course, its current use for the testing and characterisation of refractories used in the primary aluminium production industry, ceramics and heavy clays will continue and most likely even expand," says Dr Willie du Preez, manager of metals and metals processes research at the CSIR.
According to Bruce Berger, operations manager of Cermalab, the fact that this laboratory has achieved international accreditation means that local companies that currently send their refractories overseas for testing would no longer have to do so. "We can do all the tests and development work needed locally, which will bring down costs considerably," he says. "The collaboration agreement furthermore gives us more credibility, especially as the laboratory achieved ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accreditation in November 2008."
The South African National Accreditation System (SANAS) accreditation was obtained for compliance with the requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories. It is also the accreditation standard mainly used in Europe.
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