The Testing Process

The testing services TTC provides allows clients to utilise test reports for a wide range of reasons.

Whether you need testing for product certification, are after testing for internal quality control measures or are wanting to test one property of your product, Timber Testing Centre can assist and make the testing process simple and easy to understand.

Review the information below and identify some of the basic information we will need to know.
Send us an email or give us a call to discuss your testing needs.
A quote outlining, costs, sample number and sample sizes will be issued.
Submit samples for testing.
Receive a test report.

Reasons for testing:

Certification: You would like your product to be independently certified by a certification body. In this situation Timber Testing Centre can provide testing that meets your certifiers testing requirements.
Internal quality control: You would like to conduct testing to assess the properties of your product in accordance with manufacturing standards. This may be initial one-off testing or ongoing routine testing.
Singular assessment of properties: You have purchased a product and have concerns over the claims or performance and would like to have it checked.

Identification of product type:

Each different product type is manufactured to and tested to different standards. As such it is important that the type of product you want tested is clear.
Some examples of why proper product type identification is important:

A plywood product may be structural, marine, interior or a formply product and each of these products requires significantly different testing.
Fibreboard could be classified as moisture resistant or standard. One product type requires more testing than the other.
The end use of an LVL product will determine what testing is required.

Sample numbers and sizes:

The number of samples to be tested varies significantly depending on the reason for testing and product types. A number of manufacturing standards specify the minimum number of samples and certifying bodies will also specify their sample number requirements. If the number of samples isn’t specified, Timber Testing Centre can provide advice on best practice.

The size required for sample testing also varies significantly between products and between tests. When contacting us for information it is helpful to know the thickness of product, and the width for beam type products.

Testing timeframes:

The length of time to complete testing is dependant on the test being undertaken and the workload in the Timber Testing Centre laboratory at the time samples are submitted.

Some products such as particleboard and fibreboard, and testing such as formaldehyde emission require samples to be conditioned for a minimum of 7 days prior to testing being conducting.