Trust, transparency, and the importance of third-party certification

Underscoring that every component plays an important role in the overall functionality and efficiency of the ventilation system. Reliable technical documentation, Sándor adds, also helps in providing a fair comparison of products from different manufacturers. Unfortunately, he points out, the market continues to suffer from dubious business practices that put projects at risk of falling victim to false or misrepresented technical information.  

Sándor explains that these dubious practices emerge in a number of ways. “First, technical data are sometimes inflated and then misrepresented to customers in some manufacturers’ bids to achieve competitive advantages,” he says. “There are also instances where technical data are submitted with different and confusing engineering units, which make it difficult for customers to compare products.” Providing an example, Sándor describes how acoustic data may be represented as sound pressure rather than sound power.  

Weighing in on the issue, Mark Stevens, Executive Director, AMCA, says that there are also cases where the misuse of a test standard results in incorrect or exaggerated performance data. Another common occurrence he highlights relates to electronic catalogues with incorrect interpolation between working points, pitch angles or sizes.

In agreement, Sándor adds that from the onset it is already difficult for a customer to check for themselves whether a fan’s characteristics are correct, such as sound levels, pressure, and air flow.

This is where independent, third-party organisations bring value to the industry, says Stevens. “Verification by a third party that a product’s technical data is correct and properly represented builds trust between manufacturers and their customers, who can rely on the information provided due to a rigorous certification process,” adds Sándor.  

Since its establishment in 1916 by 9 founding companies, Stevens reports that the Association has come a long way from its inaugural meeting on February 9, 1917 in Chicago, USA to its current membership base of nearly 400 companies across the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Asia, supported by 30 full time employees. “In addition to owning and operating two laboratories, one outside Chicago and the other in Johor, Malaysia, AMCA also has three partner labs: CETIAT in Lyon, France, Thomas Bell-Wright International Consultants in Dubai, UAE, and Korea Testing Certification (KTC) in Korea,” he elaborates.  

Drawing from his rich background in Systemair, Sándor says the Swedish manufacturing company also stands by AMCA’s commitment to trust. “This is a core principle for the company, which invested in a laboratory and allowed AMCA, as an independent organization, to provide accreditation,” he says. “In 1996, Systemair’s laboratory in Skinnskatteberg, Sweden, became one of Europe’s first AMCA-accredited laboratories for the testing of fans for air performance and sound, and for the air curtains for air performance, velocity uniformity and velocity projection.”  

Since then, Systemair have added three more AMCA accredited laboratories to its portfolio. This includes a laboratory for the testing of air performance in Windischbuch, Germany, a laboratory for testing air performance and sound in Greater Noida, India, and another laboratory for testing air performance and sound in Lenexa, USA.

He also highlights the important contribution of third-party certifications in helping achieve wider sustainability and energy efficiency goals. “This is especially true in markets that do not have advanced regulations related to product performance,” he says. “At the end of the day, if the reported data are not correct, there is a risk that there will be problems related to noise and that the amount of ventilated air will not be as planned with the consequence of poorer indoor air quality or increased energy consumption.”  

Overall, Sándor asserts that positive change requires all stakeholders to come together to raise the standards and build a more sustainable future, and the industry should take a leadership role to be accountable and drive change for the better.