The ICP has been providing services to external entities through two of its laboratories, the Electromagnetic Compatibility Laboratory (LCEM) and the Radio Meteorology Laboratory (LMR), ever since they began operations, in 1993 and 1999 respectively.
The LCEM has been an accredited laboratory since 1995 and has supported the industry, performing control tests on the market to verify the conformity of electrical and electronic equipment. The tests are done on industrial prototype equipment (appliances and portable equipment) and IT equipment (monitors, keyboards, printers, audio speakers).
The LMR was accredited in 1999 and began collaborating with external entities in 2000. Activities in this laboratory are done using three types of equipment: radiocommunications analysers, measuring instruments (multimeters), and radio frequency generators.
Both laboratories saw their accreditation renewed in 2001 by the Portuguese Quality Control Institute (IPQ), in accordance with the NP EN ISO/IEC 17025 standard.
A broad revision of the Quality Control System on laboratories was performed due to a change in the quality control standard, NP EN ISO/IEC 17025, in 2002. This new standard not only became stricter by treating uncertainties in tests, but the quality of providing services increased, by adapting laboratories to the ISO 9001 and 9002 standards.
