BORÇELİK R&D TEST CENTER ELEVATES ITS RELIABILITY TO THE INTERNATIONAL LEVEL WITH TÜRKAK ACCREDITATION
The R&D Test Center of Borçelik, a Borusan Group company, has been accredited by the Turkish Accreditation Agency (TÜRKAK) under the TS EN ISO/IEC 17025:2017 standard. Registered under accreditation number AB-2215-T, the center has begun offering its testing and analysis capabilities to external customers following this development.
With this accreditation, the Borçelik R&D Test Center has evolved beyond being merely an internal laboratory serving the company’s production processes; it has become an accredited test center with technical competence, impartiality, and result reliability verified through independent audits.
The center provides accredited services in four distinct areas: tensile testing and Vickers hardness testing for metallic and welded materials, coating thickness measurement using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) for metallic materials, and salt spray corrosion testing for coated or painted materials.
Reliable results supporting international acceptance processes
The TS EN ISO/IEC 17025 standard—internationally recognized for ensuring the competence, impartiality, and consistent operational capability of testing and calibration laboratories—serves as a crucial benchmark for the technical validity and reliability of test results produced by these laboratories. The accreditation of the Borçelik R&D Test Center signifies that the technical competence of the testing, analysis, and reporting activities conducted by Borçelik has been verified by an independent authority.
Under the multilateral recognition agreements signed by TÜRKAK with the European co-operation for Accreditation (EA) and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), test results falling within the scope of accreditation facilitate international acceptance processes. In this context, the Borçelik R&D Test Center provides technical support meeting international standards for product development, quality assurance, failure analysis, and export processes for companies operating in various sectors, particularly automotive, white goods, construction, manufacturing, and metals. These accredited testing services assist companies in meeting technical requirements and managing product acceptance processes more effectively.
Accredited services across four distinct testing areas
The scope of accreditation for the Borçelik R&D Test Center encompasses tensile testing and Vickers hardness testing for metallic and welded materials; coating thickness measurement using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) for metallic materials; and salt spray corrosion testing for coated or painted materials. Tensile tests conducted in accordance with the TS EN ISO 6892-1 standard determine the mechanical strength, yield and tensile limits, and elongation properties of steel and other metallic materials at room temperature. Vickers hardness tests, performed under the TS EN ISO 6507-1 standard, precisely measure the hardness of both the surface and internal structure of materials. While the thicknesses of metallic coatings are examined with sub-micron precision across material cross-sections using SEM analyses compliant with the ASTM B748 standard, the corrosion resistance of coated and painted materials is evaluated under accelerated aging conditions through salt spray tests in accordance with the ASTM B117-19 standard.
An end-to-end approach to quality assurance
In line with accreditation requirements, the Borçelik R&D Test Center operates a quality assurance infrastructure based on traceability and continuous verification within its testing and measurement processes. The testing and measuring instruments used at the center are regularly calibrated by authorized bodies to ensure traceability to the International System of Units (SI). Test methods and instrument performance are regularly verified using certified reference materials and standard control samples. While monitoring measurement quality through national and international inter-laboratory comparison programs for external validation, the center also conducts inter-personnel comparison studies to ensure consistency in execution among staff. By incorporating measurement uncertainty calculations into test reports in accordance with international standards, the center provides customers with transparent, verifiable, and reliable technical data.
Leveraging its accredited infrastructure and expertise, the Borçelik R&D Test Center will continue to strengthen quality assurance in its own production processes while providing solutions for the sector’s needs regarding material development, quality control, product validation, and failure analysis.