LAB.MET

LAB.MET was established in 2005 as a consortium between various public entities in the region, with the aim of providing testing and consulting services on materials, heat treatments and a range of technologies to the region’s mechanical enterprises, and in particular to the knife district of Maniago, in need of product and technology evolution.

Since January 2009,with the aim of combining the dynamics of private initiative with public initiative, the consortium body has opened up to private partners already operating in the testing sector. Together and with varying fortunes, they have been running the laboratory amidst a number of budgetary difficulties due to the difficulty of achieving a turnover that would guarantee the absorption of expenses.

In 2011 LAB.MET became ACCREDITED according to UNI EN ISO 17025, the international standard governing the organisation and competences of testing laboratories. The accreditation covers mechanical tests, metallographic tests and chemical analyses This ACCREDITATION makes LAB.MET. the first laboratory in the region ACCREDITED on these specific testing fields (ACCREDITATION no. 1224).

In 2014 LAB.MET was wholly acquired by the private METAL SERVICES Group, a group operating in the same service sector both regionally since 1989 and internationally with a company operating in the People’s Republic of China since 2009.

With LAB.MET’s entry into the METAL SERVICES Group, the laboratory’s development reaches full maturity with rapid progression: Recruitment of qualified personnel, major investments in instrumentation and machinery for test specimen preparation, significant expansion of the range of tests under ACCREDITATION, bring LAB.MET to be considered a solid and competent service reality present in the territory, alongside the largest and most evolving manufacturing realities in the Region and beyond.

Recognition of the laboratory as a competent body for research and development activities in the field of metallic materials, recognition on the basis of Regional Law 47/1978 Art. 22 by the Regional Authority, together with the skills developed, has enabled it to develop research projects co-financed by the Region and the EC on the POR-FESR programmes.

Since 2018, LAB.MET has been based in the ‘Andrea Galvani’ Technology Pole in Pordenone. The Pole helps companies develop entrepreneurial challenges that are nourished by technology transfer and are on the way to sustainable growth, economically, but also environmentally and socially.

THE LABORATORY

LAB.MET’s range of instruments is rich and constantly evolving; to date, in addition to the classic basic instrumentation of a metallurgical laboratory, it can count on a number of instruments designed to satisfy certain specific requests that constitute real market niches such as:

X-ray Difractometry for verification of Residual Austenite in hardening-treated steels according to the ASTM E975 test standard
The measurement of residual stresses in mechanical components using the strain gauge rosette method according to ASTM E837. Furthermore, in 2021 LAB.MET was equipped with four machines for Creep and Stress Rupture tests.

LAB.MET’s strength, which constitutes the company’s real competitive advantage in the market, is the deep technical expertise achieved by its employees over the years, which has enabled it to bring complex and difficult Failure Analyses, in the most diverse technological and application fields, to a solution. The goal of the LAB.MET analyst is not only to provide the cause of the failure, but above all to give the right indications to avoid its recurrence.

Well aware of the problems faced by our customers, the delivery time of test results is another side of the strategic competition with the competition and the advantage achieved. For some customers with ad hoc contracts, due to their special requirements, the laboratory guarantees delivery of results within 5 working hours.

LAB.MET Accreditations and Certifications

At the METAL SERVICES Group, quality is the pivotal goal for all activities Quality is the basis of everything, the staff are all highly trained for their tasks, the tools are all state-of-the-art, the working method is studied down to the smallest detail. Only in this way is it possible to give certain and fast answers to our customers. In 2011 LAB.MET was the first ISO EN IEC 17025 ACCREDITED metallurgical laboratory in Friuli Venezia Giulia.

Accredia is the body appointed by the Italian government to certify the competence, independence and impartiality of bodies and laboratories that verify the conformity of goods and services to standards.

Accreditation attests the competence, independence and impartiality of certification, inspection and verification bodies, and testing and calibration laboratories, and ensures their suitability to assess the conformity of goods and services with the requirements set out in voluntary and mandatory standards.