Description
The Geotechnical Laboratory issues geotechnical test certificates in the field of soil and rock mechanics. It performs analyses for the services of the Autonomous Province of Trento and for professionals, companies and organisations that request them.
Quality Management System
On the basis of a long-term project, starting in the mid-1990s, the Geotechnical Laboratory began a process of improvement in order to equip itself with a structure capable of meeting the requirements for issuing ministerial authorisation in accordance with Article 59 of Presidential Decree 380/2001, in order to issue valid certificates in the field of design and work supervision.
The Geotechnical Laboratory has worked in this direction by equipping itself with the necessary equipment, suitable instrumentation, and the required space, and especially by reorganising its experimentation and self-control activities with the implementation, since the year 2000, of a Quality Management System that led to certification according to the UNI EN ISO 9001 standard, which took place in September 2001.
The quality system, in addition to having led to a radical improvement in the overall management of the laboratory and not least an improvement in economic results, has enabled it to comply with all the requirements of the ministerial provisions, resulting in obtaining the ministerial concession with decree No. 54889 of 28/04/2006 for the sectors a) tests on soils and b) tests on rocks. The Geotechnical Laboratory has thus become the first laboratory in the region authorised to issue official certification for the above-mentioned sectors.
In 2022, the Geotechnical Laboratory renewed the certification of its quality management system for the three-year period 2022-2025.
Quality of measurements
One of the main requirements placed on a testing laboratory that issues certificates is to provide reliable measurements by adhering to a strict system of control procedures for the measuring equipment used.
Instrument calibration is conducted by comparison with other instruments, according to a metrological traceability chain linked to national standards.
The laboratory has therefore equipped itself with all the methods and equipment to guarantee the quality of its measurements according to the acceptability criteria established by the regulatory standards, sometimes providing itself directly with the primary samples, sometimes calling on qualified suppliers to carry out the calibration directly at the laboratory.
