Representatives of the construction sector attended a forum entitled Quality of Construction Materials, hosted by the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute, CARIRI, on June 30. The session was aimed chiefly at small and new contractors who use the services of CARIRI’s Industrial Materials Unit for testing raw materials such as concrete, aggregates and asphalt. Over time, the Institute observed that there was need for many such clients to be made aware of the basic properties of these materials, and what the tests involved. CARIRI staff, including unit leader, Kamral Mohammed provided rudimentary information, covering topics including: specifications and properties of common construction materials; typical defects in concrete and asphalt; field assessments (sampling and non-destructive testing); determination of properties and tensile testing.
Held at the Cara Suites, Claxton Bay the forum opened with remarks by CARIRI’s chief executive officer, Liaquat Ali Shah, who welcomed participants and stressed the importance of quality in this very competitive sector, and the need overall to improve the quality of life of our citizens. This was echoed by CARIRI chairman, Hayden Ferreira who also reminded attendees that “… CARIRI has become synonymous with quality, confidence and trust”.
Ministry of Works project engineer, Marc Cooper congratulated the Institute on hosting this forum “… to bring greater awareness of the “ingredients” of quality to the many persons involved in the construction industry. This indeed is of critical importance to our Nation’s development, as we move toward First World status.” He emphasized that there should be no short cuts; that the correct material can only be selected after it has been certified, through appropriate tests and analyses.
CARIRI’s Industrial Materials laboratories, located at the Macoya Industrial Estate, are internationally accredited under IAS Lab. No TL397 and are also ISO 9001:2008 certified. Clients continue to benefit from services in the areas of civil engineering, metallurgy, materials characterization, calibration and physical measurements.
The management system of CARIRI has been assessed and certified by SGS as meeting the requirements of ISO 9001:2008 for the following activities:Consulting, industrial research and testing and equipment design and development. CARIRI has been certified by SGS to the ISO 9001 standard since January 1999.
The laboratories of CARIRI have demonstrated compliance with the ANSI/ISO/IEC 17025:2005 standard, General criteria for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories, and have been accredited by the International
Accreditation Service Inc. for the test methods listed in the scope of accreditation at IASonline.org.
CARIRI's laboratories have had a history of international accreditation since 1997.
