From its five founding members, TCNA membership in Mexico has grown to 43 companies supporting industry projects. This total includes 12 companies representing 99% of the tile manufactured in Mexico.
Working with the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo Leon’s chemical sciences school, TCNA installed a first-of-its-kind tile product testing laboratory in Monterrey and acquired certification from EMA, the Mexican entity for laboratory accreditation. This certification is also valid in the US through the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST).
The TCNA lab in Mexico began operations in 2015 providing ASTM C373 testing for tile manufacturers and importers in Mexico seeking certification by the internationally-recognized Porcelain Tile Certification Agency (PTCA). This certification is highly valued, not only in Mexico, but worldwide as part of a North American industry effort to curb the amount of tiles in the marketplace falsely labeled as porcelain.
Plans for the lab’s growth have been already approved by the TCNA-Mexico Board of Directors, and TCNA hired the lab’s director, Dr. Jacobo Ruiz, to participate in standards development in Mexico.
Along with performing porcelain tile certification testing in Mexico, the investment in the laboratory expansion will allow for product certification of tile under Mexican standard NMX-C-422-ONNCCE (similar to ANSI A137.1) and 3rd party product certification from ONNCCE (the Mexico national construction standards body).
This laboratory project is an important addition to TCNA’s leading role in facilitating the development of standards in Mexico, and TCNA’s participation in international inter-laboratory analyses conducted as part of the standards development process.
Having the lab equipment provided by TCNA-Mexico will allow the University of Nuevo Leon to launch a technical degree for ceramics, the goal of which long-term is to establish an exchange study program with other leading universities in ceramics education, such as Clemson University in the United States, the University of Bologna in Italy, and Universitat Jaume I of Castellón in Spain.
The lab in Mexico will also support the Green Squared certification program under ANSI A138.1, with products tested to the Mexican standard NMX-C-422-ONNCCE.