Coregas specialty gas laboratory produces calibration gases with the shortest lead time in the gas industry. The stability and shelf life of Coregas product is also well recognised in the market.
Celebrating their 26th anniversary of NATA accreditation, we spoke to Victor Chim, Coregas’ Market Manager for Specialty and Medical Gases on how NATA accreditation helps their operations and supports their market activities.
Q: What can you tell us about Coregas?
A: As a Wesfarmers company, Coregas is the only Australian industrial gases company. We manufacture gases locally and distribute throughout Australia and New Zealand via a network of branches and third parties. We offer compressed gases and cryogenic liquids to almost all industries, ranging from heavy industry and manufacturing to healthcare and specialty users such as laboratories.
Q: What is your role?
A: My role is managing and supporting the growth of the specialty gas and medical gas market at Coregas. My team supports customers in the research and development, healthcare and services sectors. In particular, our expertise is within the area of calibration gas mixtures.
Our point of difference is our ability to recommend alternate gas compositions that enable the customer to use our product for their application. We will also help diagnose and solve a customer’s gas calibration issue by assisting to replicate the same analytical results in their laboratory while using our calibration (reference) gas.
Q: How long have you been NATA accredited and to what Standard and areas?
A: Coregas was accredited by NATA against ISO/IEC 17025 in May 1997 and further gained accreditation as a primary reference gas producer against ISO 17034 in Aug 2003. We specialise in mixtures containing hydrocarbons, reactive gases, moisture test gases, mercaptans, rare gases, alcohols and hydrogen.
Q: Can you tell me how Coregas operations benefit from NATA accreditation?
A: Coregas specialty gas laboratory, a NATA accredited laboratory, undergoes scheduled assessment by NATA. These assessments ensure we maintain the highest standard for our laboratory operations. NATA ensures our laboratory is kept up to date with any amendments to the ISO standards and to learn from the industry new developments and findings.
Q: Can you tell us how your clients benefit from your accreditation?
A: Purchasing products from our established laboratory gives our clients confidence in the work they do where traceability and stability are very important. Coregas customers include some renowned Multi-National Companies. Companies that manufacture Australian made products for export also benefit by conducting their quality control processes using Coregas supplied reference gas standards.
Q: Can you tell us who some of your clients are?
A: Coregas customers include universities, government and private testing laboratories, hospitals and research facilities that operate in the analytical calibration, environmental monitoring, life sciences, resources and energy spaces, just to name a few. We were recently awarded the Rio Tinto Vice President’s Procurement Award for outstanding service and product delivery.
Q: Do your clients require you to be accredited to work with them?
A: Yes, ISO 17034 accreditation is the minimum accreditation required by most customers. The Coregas specialty gas laboratory is a commercial laboratory that specialises in gas blending and our experience enables us to provide products fast to meet our customer’s high expectations.
Q: Are you working with overseas markets and if so, do they required you to have ISO accreditation?
A: There are more countries aligning themselves to the ISO standards and many MNCs that operate in Australia are also operating in these countries. NATA accreditation against both ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO 17034 enables us to support them as it is an internationally recognised.
Q: What can you tell us about your mutual recognition arrangements and what the benefits are?
A: Overseas customers may not have heard of NATA, but they would know the International Laboratory Accreditation Co-operation (ILAC). NATA being a signatory to ILAC helped break down boundaries as our accreditation is internationally recognised. Coregas proudly displays the NATA logo with mention to ILAC on all our calibration gas mixture’s Certificate of Analysis.
We thank Victor and Coregas for their time and continued support of NATA.
