Accredited laboratory testing and test reports for the Russian market

Every EAC document rests on a test report. The certificate or declaration is the visible part; the report is the evidence, and it is the first thing an inspector asks to see when the document is questioned. A report from a laboratory that is not accredited in the Russian national system is not evidence of anything: the assessment built on it is refused, and if it slipped through, it is cancelled later.

Sertifikat RB tests in its own laboratory in Russia, under national accreditation certificate RA.RU.11NK91. For a foreign manufacturer that removes a layer from the chain. You are not paying a broker who forwards your samples to a laboratory neither of you controls, and when a result needs explaining, the people who ran the test are the people answering.

What we test

The laboratory covers the groups that most export products need for conformity assessment, and the same programmes serve quality control before shipment:

• Mechanical testing — strength, deformation and failure: tension, compression, bending, impact strength and toughness, fatigue and vibration. Metals, steel, pipes, construction materials and finished products.
• Welded joints — mechanical testing of welds, reinforcement joints, pipeline welds and hydraulic testing.
• Electrical safety and electromagnetic compatibility — the pairing required for almost every powered product under TR CU 004 and TR CU 020.
• Climatic testing — temperature, humidity, corrosion resistance and ageing, including verification of the climatic designation an equipment nameplate claims.
• Chemical composition and materials — composition analysis, harmful substance content, resistance of polymers and coatings.
• Food testing — safety indicators, composition, nutritional value, shelf life, and DNA analysis where the composition itself has to be proven.

Non-standard programmes are routine rather than exceptional. Where a product does not fit an existing method, the test programme is developed for it, which is what makes obsolete standards and unusual products workable rather than blocking.

Why accreditation decides whether the report counts

Only a laboratory entered in the register of the Federal Accreditation Service can produce reports usable for certification and declaration, and its scope of accreditation states exactly which products and methods it may test. A report outside that scope is as useless as no report at all, which is why identification precedes testing: we establish what has to be tested, by which method, and confirm it sits inside the accreditation before samples move.

This is also where cheap offers fail. A document promised without testing has no report behind it, and the register entry that a customs officer or a buyer opens shows which reports a decision was based on. Nothing there means nothing to show.

What a test report contains

The report is not a certificate of quality and not a one-line verdict. It is a record of what was done, detailed enough for a third party to judge whether the conclusion holds:

• identification of the sample — what exactly was tested, in what quantity, and how it arrived;
• test conditions: temperature, humidity and other parameters of the environment;
• the methods applied and the equipment used;
• results for each indicator, with numerical values and, where relevant, graphs and photographs;
• the conclusion on conformity or non-conformity with the requirements;
• the signature of the responsible specialist and the stamp of the laboratory.

That detail is what makes the report evidence. The certification body registering your document sees precisely what was checked and what the measured result was, and so does any inspector who asks later. Below is a sample report, in Russian as issued:

Sample test report

View the full document (PDF)

Getting samples to the laboratory

Samples cannot travel as ordinary commercial goods, because commercial import is exactly what requires the document you are trying to obtain. They are imported under Government Decree No. 353 of 07 April 2018, which covers samples brought in for testing, research and certification and not for sale. We prepare that declaration, and this is one of the steps exporters most often fail to budget time for.

Three practical points decide how smoothly this goes. The quantity is set by the test programme and agreed before you ship, since some methods destroy the sample and a second round means a second shipment. The samples must be identical to what you intend to supply, including the components you would rather not mention, because the report identifies precisely what was tested. And samples should be sent with the technical documentation, since a test programme is built from the product's actual parameters rather than from a catalogue photograph.

Testing before the official run

Pre-certification testing is the cheapest insurance in this process, and foreign manufacturers use it too rarely. You test a sample against the programme that will be applied officially, see the result, and fix the product or the documentation before the assessment is formally under way. A failure at that stage costs one test. A failure during certification costs the procedure, the schedule and the shipment behind it.

The same applies to quality control on running supply. Products change quietly when a factory switches a component supplier, and the two cases below are what that looks like when nobody checked.

From our practice

Vegan crispbread that was not vegan. Rice and chickpea crispbread was submitted for a vegan certificate, and DNA analysis found pig and chicken in the samples. The recipe was not at fault: the line had processed meat products and had not been cleaned thoroughly enough, so the contamination came from the equipment. The client corrected the process, the product was retested and the certificate was issued. Full case (in Russian).

Cable sheathing against hungry mice. A client needed a report confirming that PVC cable sheathing resists rodents under GOST 9.057-75. The method is exactly what it sounds like: samples spend 24 hours in a cage with hungry mice, and the damage is recorded in the report. Unusual tests are still tests, and someone has to be accredited to run them. Full case (in Russian).

FAQ

Are your test reports accepted for certification and declaration?

Yes, within our scope of accreditation, which we confirm for your product before testing begins. The reports are used for EAC certificates and declarations and are referenced in the register entry of the document.

Can we use test reports from our own country?

Not as a direct substitute. Foreign reports sometimes reduce the scope of testing, particularly where methods are equivalent, but the assessment has to rest on reports from a laboratory accredited in the national system. Send us what you have and we will tell you what it saves.

How many samples do you need?

It depends on the test programme, and it is agreed in writing before you ship. Some methods are destructive, so we plan the quantity to avoid a second shipment.

Can you test a product before we commit to certification?

Yes. Pre-certification testing against the official programme is available on its own, and it is the sensible first step when you are unsure whether the product meets the requirements.

What if there is no standard method for our product?

Then a programme is developed for it, drawing on the applicable standards and the product's actual parameters. We have done this for products whose governing standard predates the technology by decades.

Related: EAC certificate of conformity, EAC declaration of conformity, authorized representative in the EAEU.