What accreditation means beyond formal compliance 

EMC, climatic, insulation, vibration and shock tests are accredited in accordance with the International Standard ISO/IEC 17025:2017. This ensures that test reports are recognised internationally under mutual standard criteria of technical competence, impartiality and repeatability. This fact has a direct operational consequence: results are comparable over time and across laboratories, reducing the need to repeat tests in different countries.

The standard does not focus only on procedures. It encompasses qualification of personnel, structured skill matrices, calibration management, control and evaluation of measurement uncertainty, and participation in interlaboratory comparisons. These elements ensure that data is not only generated, but statistically reliable and technically defensible.

At Eletech, the lead company of the International Design Centres (IDCs), R&D division of Elemaster Group, these requirements translate into defined qualification paths for laboratory personnel, formalised competence matrices and controlled measurement processes aligned with ISO/IEC 17025 requirements.

Technical competence in an accredited laboratory

Within an accredited laboratory, personnel qualification is not optional. Technicians must be authorised to perform all tests required by the relevant product standards.

This requirement reinforces operational integrity. Every measurement follows standard-defined procedures, and each test plan is developed through:

• theoretical analysis of documentation
• confirmation on the physical prototype

Before performing any test, the Eletech Laboratory collaborates closely with manufacturers to analyse product architecture. Engineers examine aspects such as system interfaces, cable routing and the real operating conditions in which the product will be used. Preliminary evaluation of interfaces, ports, cable lengths and operating conditions determines which tests must be executed or can be excluded. The laboratory and the manufacturer jointly define the test plan, ensuring alignment between normative theory and real product architecture.

Competence is therefore embedded not only in execution, but in interpretation. In the case of the Eletech Laboratory, this structured approach ensures consistency between engineering analysis and accredited testing activities.

Repeatability, measurement uncertainty and decision reliability in EMC testing

Measurement uncertainty and calibration management are sometimes perceived as administrative burdens. In reality, they represent protection against incorrect decisions.

Poorly controlled uncertainty can generate false positives, where compliant products are unnecessarily modified, or false negatives, where non-compliant products reach certification stages.

ISO/IEC 17025 introduces rigorous management of these parameters. Interlaboratory tests verify statistical coherence of results, strengthening confidence in data and reducing the risk of strategic misjudgements.

In sectors such as medical devices, accredited reports are increasingly becoming de facto mandatory. The market expects documentation that demonstrates traceability, repeatability and recognised competence. For the Eletech Laboratory, operating under accreditation ensures that EMC results are reproducible, technically defensible and internationally recognised.

International recognition, certification efficiency and time-to-market

The MRA (Mutual Recognition Agreements) framework ensures that accredited test results are accepted across borders. This has a direct impact on time-to-market.

When reports are internationally recognised:

• duplication of tests abroad is reduced
• additional audits can be avoided
• certification processes become smoother

Accreditation therefore functions not only as a quality guarantee, but as a business accelerator. It reduces friction in global supply chains and simplifies access to regulated markets.

For projects developed within the Elemaster and Eletech ecosystem, the presence of an internally accredited laboratory further reduces coordination complexity between design and validation phases. Within the broader ELEVO, the Group’s Innovation Path, which promotes integration between R&D, validation and industrialisation, ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation reinforces a development model where testing competence is structurally embedded into the product lifecycle.

How the Eletech Laboratory strengthens the EMC development ecosystem

In the specific context of EMC validation, the Eletech Laboratory operates across activities such as:

• emission and immunity testing
• pre-compliance activities
• iterative troubleshooting processes
• software and hardware validation

When the laboratory is integrated within the broader engineering ecosystem, as in the case of Elemaster and Eletech, accredited testing reinforces the entire development chain.

Access to an accredited anechoic chamber during the design phase enables not only repeatable pre-compliance measurements, immediate validation of design modifications and reduction of rework before final certification. It also creates the conditions for a deeper understanding of the electromagnetic behaviour of the product itself.

In increasingly complex electronic systems, where hardware architecture, software, interfaces and shielding interact continuously, the anechoic chamber is not merely a highly technological space. It is an environment that makes visible what would otherwise remain difficult to interpret. By simulating an open field and isolating the device from external interference, it allows engineers to observe electromagnetic behaviour under controlled conditions, transforming invisible phenomena into measurable and explainable information.

Within this framework, unexpected couplings, effects related to cabling and interactions between PCB layout, enclosure and shielding become easier to identify and analyse. The value of testing therefore does not lie only in detecting that a limit has been exceeded, but in understanding why it happens and which design element is contributing to that behaviour.

This is precisely where the anechoic chamber becomes a true design lever. EMC testing evolves into an iterative development tool: measure, intervene, observe again. Each modification produces an immediate response, allowing engineers to refine the system progressively rather than waiting for a final verdict at the end of the process.

This approach becomes particularly valuable during pre-compliance activities. Bringing the anechoic chamber into the prototyping phase means allowing the project to learn while it is still flexible. At this stage, interventions on cabling, filters, shielding or layout can be evaluated when design changes are still feasible, reducing uncertainty, limiting costly redesigns and making the path towards certification more linear and efficient.

The Eletech Laboratory, operating under ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation, allows EMC validation to be positioned not as a downstream verification step, but as a structured component of product development.

For customers whose products are developed internally within the Elemaster/Eletech ecosystem, this integration represents a concrete competitive advantage in terms of reduced delays and faster time-to-market. For external customers not involved in the design process, the service aligns with the standards of traditional accredited laboratories.

Immunity testing and real robustness beyond minimum requirements

Within the Eletech Laboratory, immunity testing is not treated merely as a formal verification step. Instead, it becomes a structured process for evaluating how robust an electronic system truly is when confronted with real-world electromagnetic phenomena.

Immunity testing evaluates the ability of a device to maintain its intended performance when exposed to specific electromagnetic disturbances. Rather than focusing on what a product emits, these tests analyse how systems react when disturbances are intentionally introduced through electrical interfaces. In laboratory conditions, disturbances are injected into power lines or communication ports, reproducing phenomena commonly encountered in real operating environments. From this perspective, the laboratory acts as a controlled simulator of real-world conditions, making these situations observable in a repeatable and measurable environment.

Within an ISO/IEC 17025-accredited environment, immunity tests such as:

• EFT/Burst
• Surge
• ESD

are executed according to standardised procedures and defined performance criteria.

These disturbances reflect different physical phenomena commonly found in operational environments. 

EFT/Burst refers to high-frequency disturbances with relatively low energy, typically generated by switching events such as relays, contactors or inductive loads. 

Surge events simulate high-energy overvoltages induced by lightning strikes or disturbances in power distribution infrastructures. 

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) reproduces sudden electrical discharges that occur when a charged person or object transfers electrostatic energy to an electronic device.

By reproducing these disturbances in a controlled environment, engineers gain insight into how systems respond to electromagnetic stress conditions that are often difficult to analyse directly in the field. Increasingly, manufacturers choose to extend test levels beyond normative minima to assess real robustness under operational transients, power fluctuations or unbalanced loads.

The credibility of these extended evaluations depends on measurement traceability and procedural rigour. Accreditation ensures that even robustness-driven tests maintain statistical reliability and comparability, as applied within the Eletech Laboratory framework.

The Eletech Laboratory: a strategic asset, not a symbolic certificate

Within the Eletech Laboratory, accreditation should not be interpreted as a symbolic badge. It represents:

• a guarantee of competence
• a safeguard against measurement error
• a tool for reducing regulatory risk
• a facilitator of international market access
• a structural contributor to time-to-market

In complex electronic systems, where EMC behaviour depends on hardware architecture, cabling, shielding and software robustness, reliable data becomes the foundation for every design decision.

Without a structured and accredited laboratory framework, testing risks becoming a fragmented activity. Within the Eletech Laboratory, supported by ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation for EMC, climatic, insulation, vibration and shock tests, it becomes an industrial process aligned with engineering, certification and business strategy.

In this sense, accreditation is not an administrative endpoint. Within the Eletech Laboratory, it becomes part of a technical infrastructure that supports innovation, protects decision-making and strengthens the credibility of the entire product development cycle.