OEKO TEX Compliance Textile Testing india

One stop destination for textile testing – OEKO- TEX®

Textile testing is done for quality control and assurance of the materials. In the textile industry, quality is assured in different stages of production starting from the testing of raw materials to the finished goods including analysis of fiber, yarn, apparels assessed for dyestuff and chemicals used in dyeing and printing on clothes.

Several companies have to either set up quality control chanels internally or have to get their apparel tested from external laboratories which adds on to the cost and transportation formalities and can be a lengthy process of evaluations and revaluations.

Hence, there is a need for such outsourcing units that collect the samples from the industries and perform comprehensive tests on all levels with a single agreement, one such standardization is OEKO-TEK ® STANDARD 100 which is a globally recognised certification that is performed by the independent OEKO-TEX® institutes and is applicable to textile products at all processing steps.

STANDARD 100 testing provides several benefits to the manufacturers who wish to get their products tested, these are as follows-  

• It helps in better customer identification and has reach and knowledge amongst customers and businesses’s.

• It enables getting into the established textile chain of over 14,000 companies, which are already registered  with STANDARD 100, providing better access to sources.

• Since OEKO-TEX® institutes take into consideration the international requirements for manufacturers, the responsibility of adhering to foreign guidelines is no longer the burden of the units/companies . The institutes subsequently take care of all the necessary regulations that must be complied with for units certified by them.

• Outsourcing quality assurance enables that the firm no longer requires any mechanisms or additional expenses on resources for in-house testing. These institutes have tailored solutions for enhancing processing and product quality which provides maximum provision and minimum costs.

• Due to the robust mechanism that provides care and certification for individual production steps, the testing costs for the finished products are waived if all the components have already been successfully tested according to STANDARD 100.

The complete process of registering and getting linked to the STANDARD 100 is a comprehensive and easy going process which includes- 

• Filling the application form with all true and necessary details.

• After your application has been accepted, the OEKO-TEX® institute will approach your company/brand/unit for further investigation.

• After examining the documents, the scope of the audit and success parameters are analysed and  articles are tested according to STANDARD 100.

• After successful passing of the product from the tests undertaken in the laboratory, the manufacturing unit receives the STANDARD 100 certificate together with a detailed test report from the OEKO-TEX® institute.

• The last step involves visiting of the  OEKO-TEX® expert to the site in order to confirm all the details with the manufacturing unit. This may take place either before or shortly after certification.

The STANDARD 100 certification offers precautionary analysis of the current statutory provisions and has been explicitly measured in it’s catalog for harmful substance testing and the relevance of future developments is also ascertained. These include- 

• Prohibition regulations related to azo dyes, formaldehyde, nickel etc. alongwith testing of chemicals harmful to health if they have not yet been statutorily regulated.

• Requirements of Annexes XVII and XIV of the REACH Directive, and of the ECHA-SVHC Candidate List are covered by the test method. Products are classified on the basis of the intensity of the skin contact of a textile product, the harsher the contact, the stricter are  the limit values for each product class. These classes are categorized as – 

Product class I: Articles for babies and toddlers

Product class II: Articles used close to the skin

Product class III: Articles used away from the skin

Product class IV: Materials

Henceforth, one can call such institutes a one-stop destination for manufacturers who wish to follow international standards of textile testing and do not want to get into building extra resources or appointing experts for testing while minimising costs and maximising expertise.