Firms Allowed Use Of Govt Facility For Product Testing

The Union government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with public and private sector organisations to utilise infrastructure facilities available in the National Testing House (NTH), a unit of the Union commerce ministry, for testing industrial products, official sources said.

The government had already entered into a MoU with Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd, Ghaziabad, Zwick Testing System India Ltd., Chennai, Lead Acid Battery Company Pvt Ltd, Calcutta and Vimta Lab Ltd, Hyderabad to use the facilities to the optimum, the sources said.

The pact had been signed since the NTH, despite having some facilities, had been unable to procure sophisticated testing equipment due to paucity of funds and the government decided

 

to utilise existing specialised facilities in different private and public sector organisations, they said. Efforts were also on to sign such MoUs with some more industries, the sources said, adding that updated testing facilities were essential to ensure the quality of the products, especially in the liberalised economy.

The NTH was set up in 1912 on a modest scale for railways, mainly to evaluate certain indigenous products and it had now grown into a laboratory of national importance in the field of testing, evaluation and analysis, they said.

NTHs main functions were to test and evaluate material, products, equipment, apparatus and systems in almost all branches of science and technology, except food, drugs and pharmaceuticals, arms and ammunition, the sources said.

The house also undertook research and development in testing technology and related areas, including consultancy for failure analysis and allied problems.

It also helped industries in developing indigenous products for import substitution and in their quality assurance programmes.

, besides coordinating with the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories for accrediting testing lab and Bureau of Indian Standards for evolving national and international specifications and standards. It was also involved in training scientists, technologists and technicians in testing technology.

Besides, NT. also took part in national and international seminars, they said.

NT., which has its headquarters in Calcutta, at present has regional offices, besides Calcutta, in Mumbai, Chennai and Ghaziabad, while two other centres had been established in

Jaipur and Guwahati, the sources said.

At present, it provides testing facilities in the field of chemical technology, civil engineering, rubber, plastics and textiles, electrical engineering, electronics and heavy and light machinery.

The sources said NTH also provides industrial quality consultancy services for techno-managerial service for setting up testing and calibration laboratory, material identification consultancy in problems relating to import substitution.

In addition, NTH also provides consultancy in failure analysis for engineering materials and remedial measures, quality improvisation of paints and allied material, fine chemicals and pesticides and interpretation of radiographs and grading of severity of defects with reference to standards, they said.

Referring to the specialised jobs, the sources said NTH had carried out microhardness test on cast iron grills and steel fibres, used in brake linings and sewing machine needles, testing to identify timber species, calibration of pressure guages ranging above 200 bar and precision timers to test dry cell for evaluating discharge characteristics.

NTH was earning about Rs 1 crore a year through the testing facilities, the sources added.