IAS administrative staff visited the IAS-accredited Smith-Emery Laboratories on September 15. During the visit, Dr. Praful Patel of Smith-Emery provided a warm welcome to the staff. The visit started with a meeting and Dr. Patel briefed the staff about the laboratory operations. The staff was also informed about the assessment process conducted by IAS assessors when they visit the laboratories during the course of regular assessments.
After the brief meeting, Dr. Patel took the staff on a tour of the laboratory. At the start of the tour, staff visited the metallurgical laboratory. Dr. Patel demonstrated the laboratory’s electron microscopes and addressed the significance of failure analysis performed by the metallurgical laboratory. He also mentioned about the proof load testing, tension tests, the Charpy v-notch impact test, sample preparation and a metallographic analysis performed by the laboratory technicians.
Later in the tour, the staff viewed soil testing involving sieve analysis, soil classification and soil compaction tests. Next on the tour agenda, sulfur-based capping of concrete cylinders and compression tests of concrete cylinders per ASTM Standard C 39 were demonstrated to the staff. Finishing the tour, tensile testing of rebar was demonstrated and the procedures for masonry testing were described.
Overall, it was a good learning experience for the staff who were familiar with the testing jargon and even some of the laboratory procedures based on their years of servicing the needs of IAS-accredited construction material laboratories. IAS thanks the Smith-Emery Laboratories management and staff for sharing their knowledge and hospitality during the visit.
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