NKK's Fukuyama Works Acquires U.S. Fastener Quality Certification Shigeomi Sato, a Fukuyama Works employee, holds the American FQA certificate. NKK's Fukuyama Works was formally accredited, as of January 22, 1998, as a chemical testing laboratory under the Fastener Quality Act (FQA) of the Unite d States, and has been registered as such with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of the U.S. Department of Commerce. This permits the Fukuyama Works to manufacture and test steel sheets as well as billets and blooms for bars/rods, the primary materials for fasteners, in line with FQA requirements, and facilitates the export of fasteners to the U.S. market. The FQA was developed under the auspices of NIST to prevent the distribution of poor quality fasteners such as screws, bolts, nuts, washers, etc. The act is scheduled for implementation on May 26, 1998. Manufacturers and distributors of fastener will be required to obtain a certification in the U.S. for mechanical and chemical composition analysis tests issued by NIST-accredited laboratories. Steelmakers are permitted to issue a certification for chemical analysis tests of molten steel. Under NIST supervision, the Japan Accreditation Board for Conformity Assessment (JAB), a FQA certification body in Japan, assessed the Fukuyama Works in November 1997. The Works formally received JAB certification on December 26,1997. The Sendai Works of Toa Steel Co., Ltd., an NKK group company, also acquired FQA certification at the same time. Thus, the NKK group as a whole is ready to efficiently meet the FQA requirements because the Fukuyama Works can certify the chemical analysis of steel products manufactured at NKK's Keihin Works. |
