BAHIR DAR INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

FACULTY OF MECHANICAL AND INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

POST GRADUATED IN MECHANICAL DESIGN
Course Title: Product Test
Industrial Visit Report

Ethiopian Standard Agency in Ethiopian Conformity Assessment Enterprise

Prepared by: Tibebu Meride

ID.NO. BDU 0702325PR

Summited to: Mr. Yonas Mitiku (Ass.Prof.)

Date 16/5/2008EC

Abstract
Ethiopian Standard Agency (ESA) is a governmental non-profitable organization and the
sole National Standards Body (NSB) which represents Ethiopian interest in economic, social
and environmental aspects with regard to standard benefits across International and regional
Arena. Standards Authority of Ethiopia (QSAE) into four including the new national
standards body (NSB) Ethiopian Standards Agency (ESA), Ethiopian conformity
Assessment Enterprise, Ethiopian Metrology Institute and Ethiopian Accreditation Beurro.
Ethiopian conformity Assessment Enterprise observation seen for ISO certification,
mechanical and building, electrical testing laboratory, photometric testing, textile and lather
laboratory, food laboratory and chemical testing laboratory.

Key word: - testing certification

1.Introduction
Ethiopian Standard Agency (ESA) is a governmental non-profitable organization and the
sole National Standards Body (NSB) which represents Ethiopian interest in economical,
social and environmental aspects with regard to standard benefits across International and
regional Arena. Besides working with international and Regional standard bodies, ESA also
work closely with different national standard bodies under bilateral agreements.
Ethiopian Standard Body has undergone several structural and name changes since its first
birth back in 1970, and ESA was established as per the latest restructuring, as per Ethiopian
Council of Minister Regulation No. 193/2010, which caused the splitting of former Quality
and Standards Authority of Ethiopia (QSAE) into four including the new national standards
body (NSB) Ethiopian Standards Agency (ESA), Ethiopian Conformity Assessment
Enterprise, Ethiopian Metrology Institute and Ethiopian Accreditation Beurro.Ethiopian
Standard Agency (ESA) is a governmental agency which is accountable to Ministry of
Science and Technology, and has a National Standardization council which work together
with the agency, the member of the council is drawn from appropriate Governmental and
Other bodies and designated by the government[1].
Ethiopian standards agency has three core business areas which mainly focus on the standard
formulation, training and Technical support and organizing and disseminating standards,
Conformity assessment procedures and Technical regulation for the customers. The primary
functions of ESA are:

To lead and coordinate national standardization.

To confirm and publish the national Ethiopian Standards;

To promote the implementation of standards;

To Promote Ethiopian Standard Mark and authorize its use;

To represent Ethiopia in the International Standards Organization and work in

collaboration with other foreign national standard bodies.

To establishes National Enquiry Point and deliver services on Standardization,

Conformity Assessment Guidelines and Technical Regulation

To enable Ethiopian industries to benefit from technology transfer by

providing Technical Support, Trainings and Consultancy Services and
assisting them in implementation of standards.

2.Ethiopian Conformity Assessment Enterprise

Ethiopian Conformity Assessment Enterprise (ECAE), is at present the major conformity
assessment organization in the country providing inspection, laboratory testing and
certificate According to a discussion held with the management, currently, the six
laboratories of the Enterprise are predominantly idle. Mandatory quality inspection applies
for only a few imports, such as consumables; for national safety and security purpose,
whereas most imports are not required to go through quality inspection unless the importers
demanded the service.
ECAEs product certification services are based on mandatory and voluntary Ethiopian
Standards (ES) and include:
Food products
Electrical products
Chemical products
Textile & leather products
mechanical and building materials
Cleaning plants for agricultural products and input and others
According to the discussion, the certification is limited to very few products since limited
attention is given by the top management and also there is a limited resource like facilities
and qualified expertise. Due to this the enterprise mainly focuses on inspection service. On
services to the public and to industry. Conformity assessment is any activity concerned with
determining directly or indirectly that relevant requirements are fulfilled. Typical examples
of conformity assessment activities are testing, inspection, assurance of conformity, and
mutual recognition agreements [2].
Mission
ECAEs mission is to provide internationally accepted and recognized certification,
inspection and testing services for exporters, producers, service providers, regulatory bodies,
consumers and importers as well as the public through credible, effective, accessible and
efficient conformity assessment services that enhances the quality of products and services.

Vision
ECAEs vision is to be the national leader in providing conformity assessment services and
to be internationally recognized and accepted.

2.1 Product Certification

Product certification is common all over the world. Quality and Standard Authority of
Ethiopia has been providing product certificates for many organizations. The following table
shows organizations that use QSAEs certificate (Table 3). Majority of the certified
organizations are from building materials and agriculture sectors. Food, chemical, textiles
and leather sectors are also partially certified. In 2007/08 among 1930 medium and large
manufacturing industries, only 99 of them were certified. It implies that only 5% of the
manufacturing industries are using Ethiopian standards.
Table 3. Organizations which use the logo of
QSAE
Sector

No.

Agriculture, oil seeds, cereals 142

and others
Food technology

41

Building materials

456

Textiles

17

Chemical technology

20

Leather technology

21

The regulatory service undertaken is largely based on ISO/IEC Guide 28, which provides
general rules for third party certification system of determining conformity with product
standards through:
Initial testing and assessment of factory quality control system and its acceptance; and
surveillance that takes into accounts the factory quality management system and the testing
of samples from the factory and the open market [3].

A third-party certification program for products operates based on the following

internationally-accepted certification systems as the circumstance may require:
1. Type testing,
2. Type testing followed by subsequent surveillance through audit testing of samples
purchased on the open market,
3.

Type testing followed by subsequent surveillance through audit testing of factory

samples,

4. Type testing followed by subsequent surveillance through audit testing of samples

from both the open market and factory,
5. Type testing and assessment of factory quality control and its acceptance followed
by surveillance that takes into account the audit of factory quality control and the
testing of samples from the factory and the open market,
6. Factory quality control assessment and its acceptance only,
7. Batch testing, and
8. 100% testing
Among these certification systems the most widely and frequently used systems for
certification of locally manufactured goods, imported and exported goods are systems
number 5, 7, and 8.

2.2. System Certification

Quality management certification was a very expensive and tiresome process for Ethiopian
industries, because there was no system certified organization which can certify local
companies. Management system certification is third party attestation related to products,
processes, systems, or persons.
As stated above management system certification are the certification of quality management
system, food safety management system and environmental management system as
conforming, respectively, to ISO 9001, ISO 22000 and ISO 14001 standards. Likewise, the
bodies that issue ISO 9001, ISO 22000 or ISO 14001 certificates are referred to as
"certification bodies".

In order to facilitate harmonization of best practices and consistency in their activities the
certification bodies should be accredited to ISO/IEC 17021:2006. Management System
certification is among the services of QSAE that has already been operational.
Steps to be followed for Obtaining QMS Certification [4].

Establish and implement a documented quality management system and ensure its
effectiveness by conducting internal audit and management review.

Submit a letter requesting for certification service accompanied by a duly completed

application form.

Sign certification agreement

Submit the quality manual, system level procedures and related documents, when
asked for.

A Quality System Audit Team Leader consults the applicant to fix the audit date.
When agreement is reached an audit plan is prepared and communicated to the
applicant.

The applicant shall take corrective actions on non-conformities identified during the
audit (if any) and get them verified.

Settle the Certification service fee when informed to do so.

Obtain the Certificate

Get prepared for the surveillance audit which takes place every year after the grant
of the certificate

Get prepared for the re-certification audit which takes place every three years after
the grant of the certificate.

2.3. Mechanical and Building Materials Testing Laboratory

Mechanical and Building materials testing laboratory is one of the main the country testing
laboratory area for testing mechanical behaviors of the samples and building materials with
related to international requirement qualification with in the limit. i.e. it satisfies in minimum
requirement for the testing value. For mechanical and building testing laboratory room
contains metal and construction product sample testing.
Building materials testing: - from construction materials one of the testing material is
cement product testing. Cement have different ingredients. Like, calcium, potassium,

sulfur silicon composite materials. cement test has two types of testing techniques. Those
are Specification techniques and testing method techniques. In cement test have to be
mainly compressive strength test. For cement compressive testing it include different,
one cement sample comes from costumer and second standard sample taken.so it will be
mixed with water into mixer machine after mixing the sample to prepare sampling pattern
for breaking model system machine with manual operating system from my observation
and interviews. Then sampling pattern insert into humidity calibration system in 24 hours
with 1-900c it his case to read display output for digital display with standard calibrated
values compared with actual values with correction factors. Cement sample test in water
insertion for:
7 to 28 days for slow/ non-faster dry
2 to 28 days faster dry
The calibration of cement for 2 days must be satisfy 10MPa compressive strength (minimum
value) below 10MPa compressive strength the material is fail in compressive testing
machine.
Mechanical material testing: - tensile testing is one of the mechanical properties of
testing material for metallic property. In this testing room seen for tensile testing using
universal testing machine. Universal testing machine has two operating systems, like
tensile and compressive testing with in hydraulic or mechanical holding of specimen.
Before the sample griping to measure the sample original length and indicate lower and
upper griping edge system in sample marking with visible color marker.
After the above process finish to fix specimen in universal machine jaws and to feed the
input with in computer system and read tensile stress, force and elongation for digital system.
with the related output to draw stress strain diagram the strain elongation started from 70MPa
but not the origin of stress- strain diagram. Because the material behavior is to resist some
initial load up to 70MPa stress induced.
Plot stress-strain diagram
Tensile testing with computer system for sample containing of material test by using
six reference base line of the test. Like: aluminum

 copper
cobalt
manganese
nickel
silicon
Each sample made from the material of reference baseline behaviors. The sample will be test
three times sparking with argon gas feeding with computer for tensile test. The value of
sample feed exactly to the computer to gain some value. Those value is differing from
standard calibration value by taken correction factor in positive or negative sign to adjust
correct value gain.
Bending test is used to check the sample crack initiation and deformation occurs or not.
For bending test in500 rank one sample test and 400 rank two sample test, but not much
sample test. Because the sample comes selected sample.
Hydrostatic test: -The hydrostatic test will be conducted when all fabrication has been
complete. The test pressure shall not be applied until the vessel and the water are at about
the same temperature. All nozzle shall be plugged with the appropriate blind or plugs
that prevent the leakage during the test, the nozzle located at the highest point shall be
used for venting the item and one of the pressure gauges shall be connected directly to
the item being tested. If the hydrostatic test results are acceptable, that is no leaks in the
pressure boundary of the vessel nor its temporary mechanical fittings.

2.4. Electrical Testing Laboratory

In this laboratory solar system testing, socket, switch, breaker, wire, battery and clump
testing done.
In solar efficiency measured by caudex. The sample to be measured up to 15 Wate. The solar
battery test 30 day with oven.
Wire testing is to measure conductor distance of wire buy using multi-meter and also
measure thickness of wire. The wire thickness is required to pass within minimum and
average standard calibration value. Those thickness value calculations by using 4th
quadrant measuring device and interpolate its value seen the image.one role is 15m with
three sample for 1m.

 Socket testing is 10000 times plugged with own current and voltage amount delivered
for one test.
Switch testing is 40000 times for two days ON and OFF within the current connection
with the voltage storage device system.
Breaker testing is triple characters ties for testing of 1hour before test identify.
20x1.35
20x1.45
20x1.75
Breaker testing is important for temperature and power loss check. Impact test is one of the
breaker testing method for load resistance method.
Clump test is used to current measuring method for how much current is pass will be
checked.

2.5. Photometric Testing Laboratory

Photometric test is used to light output testing. It used for 20 minute to feed voltage and
current.
Battery R6P testing is testing of performance of the battery. It will be pass the test
with indicating of green color light seen and fail for indicating of red color light seen
in testing device. Generally, the calibration of testing device check within standard
system for six month or one year later.

2.6. Textile and Lather Laboratory

In this room observe for strength, healthy, ph. values, packaging materials, polymer
identification and shoes simulation have been done.

2.7. Chemical and Food Testing Laboratory

In this room seen for different chemical, food, AL colic drink, soft drink, agricultural
fertilizer and milk testing.

Conclusion and Recommendation

Ethiopian conformity assessment enterprise observation is very important to understand for
product testing course easily. Ethiopian conformity assessment enterprise

have different

testing laboratory include within one building and different room. They are voluntary to
express your work. The problem of Ethiopian conformity assessment enterprise suffocation
around chemical and food testing laboratory area, not fully testing material present, do not
properly put sampling material, do not safety material use for observer.

Reference
1. Ethiopian standard agency
2. Ethiopian Conformity Assessment Enterprise
www.eca-e.com
3. QSAE home page
http://www.qsae.et
Quality and Standard Authority of Ethiopia, 2010. Especial Bulletin, Addis Ababa
4. http://www.cementchina.net/news/shownews.asp?id=5345
5.Interviews and observation.