| NEWS and REPORTS PAGE | |
| Here you
find the latest news on the Institute's activities. Some of the news items are of general interest and might be interesting for all visitors. Other items are especially for participants of our interlaboratory studies. |
|
| News items for all visitors | ||
| Nov. 2008 | The currently running round robin iis08L03DGA on DGA analysis of transformer oil has been cancelled. Regretfully it appeared that the quality of the samples may have been influenced negatively by the transport. And therefore it was decided to cancel this round robin. As alternative it is proposed to organise a new interlaboratory study early 2009 using another type of syringes. More information on request. | |
| Nov. 2008 | The protocol used by iis for the organization of interlaboratory studies was recently updated. This new version (3.1) is available here. A hard copy is available on request. | |
| Nov. 2008 | The quality of the determinations of metals and phthalates in plastics has been investigated. The results of this investigation has been published in the international journal 'Accreditation and Quality Assurance'. | |
| July 2008 | Due to increasing fuel prices, the sample transport costs have equally increased over the last months. For example: in July 2007, TNT charged us about 14% fuel surcharge. Today, July 2008, this surcharge is 26%! And each month the courier firms revise the fuel surcharge. Until this date we have absorbed these extra costs. But now we are forced to charge these extra costs to our customers. All offered prices will be calculated on the basis of current transport rates, excluding fuel surcharge. The actual costs will be calculated at the time of dispatch with the actual fuel surcharge at that time. | |
| June 2008 | The new program for August 2008 - June 2009 is now available. In the new program, on request of several participants some new products will be investigated: Methylene diphenyl diisocyanate(MDI), Phenol and Methylmetacrylate (MMA). It was decided not to repeat the PTs on Acetone, MPG, Isopropanol, Acetic Acid, MTBE/ETBE and Butylacrylate, but to postpone these to next year's program (2009/2010). In the new program additional samples (spiked samples and/or samples for special analysis) are listed as separate rounds. The necessary registration forms can be downloaded in pdf format here. Alternatively one can register via the Electronic PT Registration Form present in our website. | |
| April 2008 | The planned round robin iis08G04 on PPO (Pure Plant Oil) has been cancelled. Regretfully it appeared not possible to find a sufficient number of laboratories that were interested in participation. And therefore it was decided to cancel this round robin. | |
| Feb. 2008 | During the execution of the proficiency test iis07A05 on perspiration of heavy metals in textile, the results for chromium as reported by the group in this proficiency test appeared to be divided bimodally. Investigation after this phenomenae learned that various liquor ratios were used by the participating laboratories. See here for more details. Together with the final report of the PT, a questionnaire was sent to the participating laboratories. They were asked for their opinion on the necessary action to be taken for the next PT. In total 68 questionnaires were sent out. After one month 20 completed questionnaires had been returned. See this memo for an evaluation of the returned questionnaires. | |
| Jan. 2008 | During the October 2007 round robin on gasoil (ultra low sulfur B5 diesel), a candidate reference material for various determinations was tested by the participating laboratories. The reported results from 137 laboratories were sufficient to certify successfully the ultra low sulfur B5 diesel for the following determinations: Cloud Point, Density, Monoaromatics, Sulfur, Water. This reference material can be purchased via this website. | |
| Dec. 2007 | The planned round robin iis08B01 on Pygas has been cancelled. Regretfully it appeared not possible to find a sufficient number of laboratories that were interested in participation. And therefore it was decided to cancel this round robin. | |
| Dec. 2007 | Due to problems with sample availability several round robins started not as planned. Therefore also the deadlines for reporting of those rounds were extended. The deadline for reporting results for the Transformer Oil round was extended to January 4, 2008 and also the deadlines for reporting results for the Crude Oil and Condensate rounds were extended to January 4, 2008. | |
| Nov. 2007 | During the September 2007 round robin on Jet Fuel A1, a candidate reference material for various Flash Point determinations was tested by the participating laboratories. The reported results from 102 laboratories were sufficient to certify successfully the high purity n-decane for the Flash Point determinations by the following Standard Methods: IP170 / ISO13736, ASTM D56 and ASTM 3828 / IP303, which is equivalent to IP523 / ISO 3679. This reference material can be purchased via this website. | |
| Oct. 2007 | The results of the proficiency test on the determination of Chromium 6+ in plastics are remarkable. For this PT, lead chromate was spiked to PVC to a Chromium level of approx. 40 mg/kg. Most laboratories were able to measure this using a total chromium determination (average total chromium content is 33.8 mg/kg). But for the Chromium 6+ only very low test results were reported (average 1.3 mg/kg). Only one laboratory was able to report 28 mg/kg Chromium 6+. This laboratory used THF to dissolve the PVC sample. See the report for more details. | |
| Sept. 2007 | The increasing interest from the laboratory community in proficiency testing has resulted in 101 participants in the current proficiency test for the determination of metals in plastics. | |
| August 2007 | During the registrations of the new PT programme, it was noticed that two round IDs were incorrect. The ID for the gasoline round that will start September 26 should be iis07B04 and not iis07B03 (which is the ID of the biogasoline round of may 2007). The ID for the metals in plastics round, that will start August 22, was iis07P02 on the paper form that was sent by post, while it was iis07P03 on the internet. It was decided to use iis07P03 as ID for this round. | |
| July 2007 | The starting date of the round robin for gas condensate was changed from January 9, 2008 to October 31, 2007. On request of some participants the scope of this new round robin was extended to: Colour Saybolt, Density @ 15oC, distillation (D86), Mercury, Sulphur, Water and Vapour Pressure. | |
| July 2007 | The determination of density in high viscosity fuel oil has been problematic during the iis round robins of November 2006 and February 2007, see the reports iis06F02 and iis07F01. Very large spreads were observed and therefore an investigation for the cause of the problems was started. The results of this investigation are now available, see the evaluation and the conclusions. | |
| June 2007 |
To anticipate on the growing market in the P.R. of China and to facilitate the services for Chinese laboratories, iis opened an agency in Shenzhen, China. The Chinese operations will be lead by Mrs. Lucy You, assisted by Ms. Melody Qi. Several documents are already available in Chinese, see here and here . For more information, please contact: 请联系我们，欢迎咨询讨论： 联系人：齐乐(Melody Qi)；尤文献(Lucy You) 邮箱: melody.qi@sgs.com; lucy.you@sgs.com 电话：(+86)755-26390282, 26392411 传真：(+86)755-26390257 地址：深圳南山区妈湾大道8号亿升大厦一楼（518054 ） |
|
| June 2007 | The new program for August 2007 - June 2008 is now available. In the new programme, on request of some participants several new products will be investigated: Vinyl Acetate monomer (VAM), Condensate and Pure Plant Oil (PPO). A PT on Crude Oil Assay (D2892) will be organised in November 2007. It was decided not to repeat the PTs on Polyols and Propylene oxide, but to postpone this to next year's programme (2008/2009). | |
| May 2007 | A participant pointed us to an unclearness in the final report iis07B02X for gasoline. The unclearness concerns the reported results for aromatics by GC and by FIA method. As we agree that this issue was not treated very clear in the original report, a new report was issued. The new -corrected- report can be downloaded here. | |
| April 2007 | The reference materials Naphtha are no longer available. In 1999 iis did prepare two naphtha reference materials. A light naphtha and a heavy naphtha material were certified. In 2004 the lesser stability of the light naphtha forced us to stop sales of this material and now again the stability of the heavy naphtha is the reason that also the remainder of heavy naphtha will be destroyed. From the annual measurements of this material it became clear that the n-paraffine content is slowly decreasing, causing a small increase of the concentrations of the other components. Until April 2007 these changes were still acceptable and well within the uncertainty ranges of the certified components. | |
| March 2007 | The scope of accreditation of iis was updated and increased with four products and several dozens of tests. The accreditation of iis (accreditation number R007, for all details see the RvA website) now also contains the organisation of PTs for acetone, acetic acid, toluene and transformer oil. | |
| Jan. 2007 | In the last round robin report for styrene (see page 39 of the report iis06C08) a bimodal data set was observed for AMS (alpha- methylstyrene) in sample #658. At the time of the finalisation of this report, no explanation was yet found for this fact. However, upon further investigation, a probably cause was found that may explain for the odd data set of AMS (alpha-methylstyrene) in sample #658. See here for more details and the results of the investigations and here for the example chromatogram.. | |
| Dec. 2006 | After having been postponed for several months due to the lack of interested laboratories, the proficiency test on Polyols will start on 28 December 2006. As the reporting date is 2 February 2007, still registrations are accepted. | |
| Nov 2006 | Unfortunately the planned proficiency test on the analyses of Polyether Polyols (iis06C13) had to be postponed with one month. At this moment the number of registered laboratories is still too low (7) to start this round robin. | |
| Oct. 2006 | As the number of laboratories that is participating in the interlaboratory program is constantly increasing, iis decided to attract a new employee. Ms. Wai Leung is being trained since the beginning of this month. She will start as assistant in the sample preparation and the preparation of the reports. | |
| Sept. 2006 | Further investigations of the Bromine Number method by two participating laboratories and the use of a new bump hunting method (recently described by M. Thompson, see the AMC website) on the odd dataset for Bromine Number (see below August news item). provided additional evidence that the majority of the reported results for Bromine Number were incorrect. See for more details here. | |
| August 2006 | The laboratory of Shell Rheinland Refinery pointed us to the presence of 130 ppm Styrene in the benzene sample #0627 that was used in the proficiency test iis06C05. This amount of Styrene is not in agreement with the low Bromine index as reported in the final report of this PT. Investigations revealed that the lowest reported results for Bromine Index are suspect and that the assigned value as mentioned in the final report is too low. See for more details here. | |
| August 2006 | A participant pointed us to an error in the final report iis06G02X for biodiesel 100%FAME. Therefore two pages of the report were corrected. The corrected pages 27 and 28 can be downloaded here. | |
| July 2006 | During the annual stability check of the reference materials it appeared that the light naphtha reference material is not valid anymore. Consequently this material no longer can be supplied. In spite of the precautions taken the amount of n-paraffines has decreased and the concentrations of all other components has increased accordingly. Obviously some light alkanes like propane and butane will have evaporated and escaped from the vials. In the past a similar effect has been observed with the degradation of the MTBE reference material after several years. | |
| June 2006 | The new program for Sep. 2006 - June 2007 is now available. In the new program on request of some participants several new products will be investigated: Polyether polyols in 2006 and Propylene oxide in 2007. The frequency of the Fuel oil round was increased to twice per year and the sample dispatch dates of several other products was synchronised in order to allow combined sample dispatches and thus facilitate participation in those rounds. | |
| April 2006 | As accredited pt provider iis has evaluated the stability of the materials that are used in the proficiency tests. All materials did proof to be stable and no significant changes are expected during the execution of a regular proficiency test. In april 2006 there has been additional proof of the stability of the packed materials. See more about the stability results | |
| March 2006 | Obviously, the high quality of the iis samples is getting well known as iis was contacted by one of the major international petroleum companies that also runs a round robin scheme for most regular fuels. A contract was signed and starting medio 2006, iis will prepare and despatch the samples for this external round robin scheme, using iis's accredited procedures. | |
| Feb. 2006 | The effectivity of participation in a proficiency test is very much dependend on the follow-up. This follow-up is the responsibility of the participating laboratory. In order to assist the participating laboratories getting maximum efficiency, Rob Visser - manager of iis - wrote some guidelines that were published in an article in the international journal 'Accreditation and Quality Assurance'. | |
| Nov 2005 | Together with the final report of the PT on metals in plastics (iis05P03) a questionnaire was sent to the 66 participants. On 30 November in total 12 participants had returned this questionnaire. The answers of the participants show a very high satisfaction and high appreciation of the iis operations: the only negative answers were given about the number of metals investigated. See more about the results of this investigation here | |
| Oct. 2005 | The Dutch accreditation board RvA did send an audit team to iis for the annual surveillance audit on October 7, 2005. Only three minor non conformities - that can be solved quite easily - were issued. | |
| Sept. 2005 | The registrations for the new program show increased attention from the laboratory community for independent quality control by proficiency testing. In many rounds more laboratories will participate than before (for diesel > 150!) and already 38 laboratories registered for the new round on 5% biodiesel. See also this overview of the growth of iis during the period 1994-2004. | |
| Aug. 2005 | An extra interlaboratory study will be organised on request of a participant. It is a type of round robin that is organised only occasionally. It concerns a Crude Oil Assay (a TBP distillation) and the subsequent determination of density and sulfur content of the collected fractions. All interested laboratories are welcome to participate. On 29 August already 9 laboratories did register for this special round robin. | |
| July 2005 | The opening page of the iis site now explains in six languages the services of iis and that all communications have to be in English due to the large number of participating nationalities (laboratories from 89 countries do participate already). Also a search function was added to the functionalities. | |
| June 2005 | New Proficiency testing program 2005-2006 available. New in this year's program is the proficiency test on biodiesel (diesel containing 5% FAME). This new round was introduced upon requests from several participants. Due to the increase interest in bio-fuels also the scope of the existing proficiency testing programme for ethanol was enlarged with fuel-ethanol. | |
| May 2005 | To facilitate reporting of results via e-mail, the necessary report forms are available for download on this web site. See this section for participants. | |
| April 2005 | After a silent period, the iis website was updated and several sections were changed. See for example the FAQ page. | |
| January 2005 | The accreditation of iis has been renewed and is now valid until January 27, 2008. See www.rva.nl for a copy of the accreditation R007 | |
| Dec 2004 | The Institute for Interlaboratory Studies performed a small investigation on the status of the availability of Measurement Uncertainties in ISO 17025 accredited laboratories. The results of this investigation were remarkable. Even for simple tests like pH or density measurement large differences were observed between laboratories. Without doubt, the lack of a standard method for the estimation of Measurement Uncertainties is the main cause. See more about this investigation here | |
| Nov 2004 | Error in formula in manual Mettler Toledo DE40/50/51. During the methanol round robin of September 2004 abberant observations for Apparent Specific Gravity measurements revealed the presence of an error in a formula in the manual of some Mettler Toledo digital density meters. See here for more details. | |
| Oct 2004 | At the request of many participants Certificates of Participation (see downloadable example certificate of participation) are available as of October 1, 2004. Due to the costs involved in the preparation and dispatch of the certificates, we are forced to charge a small fee of 10 Euros for this additional service. Read more about this service here. | |
| Sep 2004 | In the original final report iis04A02 of the proficiency study on AZO dyes in Textiles, unfortunately several errors occur: 4-chloro-o-toluidine was present in stead of 5-chloro-o-toluidine as a consequence of an error present in the well known textbook of Venkatraman. Also a reference to an analytical method that can identify both o-toluidine isomers was found. On September 7 we issued a correction to the final report that you can download here: addendum report iis04A02_add.pdf | |
| Aug 2004 | Standard Method ASTM D3338 updated D3338-00 Estimation of Net Heat of Combustion of Aviation Fuels was updated to D3338-04 on Aug 9, 2004. Unfortunately, there was no redline version nor a summary of changes in the method. After review of the two methods, the changes are that D2887 was added to the referenced documents and the summary of the method. A new Section 6.3.1 was added which states that D2887 may be used as an alternative to D86 for determining fuel volatility for use in this test. | |
| July 2004 | Ellen van der Burg is appointed as the new technical co-ordinator of iis. She will be responsible for all sample preparations. | |
| June 2004 | New Proficiency testing program 2004-2005 available | |
| May 2004 | IIS moved from Dordrecht to a new location in Spijkenisse (see contact details) | |
For the archive with older news items press here
When you are looking for older reports, please send us your request