I.CE.C - Institute of Quality Certification for the Leather Sector
The reference for leather sector certifications
In the context of the standardisation activity of UNI, the Technical Committee “Leather and leather goods” deals with terminology, sampling, test methods and characteristics of all the materials deriving from leather, through tanning and the following processes.
Moreover, the Technical Committee “Leather and leather goods” is connected with the international standardisation activity held by CEN and ISO technical committees – CEN/TC289 (whose European secretariat is held by UNI since 1992), ISO/TC120 and its sub-commissions, IULTCS – International Union of Leather Technologists and Chemists Societies.
The national activity is performed by ad-hoc groups, that are constituted following the topics under discussion. Some ad-hoc groups: revision of physical – mechanical test methods, requirements of lathers for different uses.
ICEC is member of UNI and participates to the works of Technical Committee “Leather and leather goods” and to some ad hoc working group about standards that are useful for the consequent certification activity.
UNI – Italian Unification National Body is the standardisation Italian body. Its standardisation activity includes all the industrial, commercial and tertiary sectors, except electric and electro-technical sector managed by CEI – Italian Electro-technical Committee
The institutional scope of UNI is to elaborate technical standards and to make the normative culture known. Moreover, it officially represents Italy in ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation, international standardisation body) and in CEN (Comité Européen de Normalisation, European standardisation body), with the aim to promote the standard harmonisation and to facilitate the exchange of products and services. This is made possible by adopting the EN standards and the most relevant ISO standards at national level.
Standardisation activity means therefore to elaborate technical documents that are a certain reference for the operators, through the voluntary participation of sectorial expert who work following transparent and democratic procedures. .
In this framework, the standards and the standardisation activity are one of the main points of harmonisation within the parts (i.e. the categories in an industrial activity: suppliers, buyers, users, independent third parties such as research organisations, test laboratories, public administration, etc.). The standards (test methods, technical or terminological specifications) are the premises for the reduction of the causes of mistake in the dialogue within the parts.