Intertek and Portable Lights American Trade Organization (PLATO) Partner to Elevate Quality Portable Lighting Products
21 Apr 2015
Chicago – Intertek (LSE: ITRK), a leading provider of quality and safety services to a wide range of industries around the world, today announced a strategic alliance with the Portable Lights American Trade Organization (PLATO). Through this collaborative relationship, Intertek will provide independent third-party testing and measurement in support of PLATO’s mission to advance the industry by elevating the quality of products.
PLATO has worked to develop the ANSI/NEMA FL-1 standard, which specifies a methodology for testing, measuring, and rating the basic performance of flashlights, headlamps, spotlights, and portable lighting tools. This product standard gives consumers and retailers a uniform system for understanding and comparing product performance on critical factors such as lumens output.
Key measurements of portable lighting performance outlined in ANSI/NEMA FL-1 include light output levels in lumens, runtime, beam distance, peak beam intensity, water resistance and ingress protection, and impact resistance. Intertek facilitates testing to the standard’s product performance guidelines as a crucial step in product development, product labelling, competitive benchmarking, and claim verification for marketing. Intertek’s experts are available to PLATO members at all phases of product development so that compliance can be considered in the earliest phases of innovation.
“Before PLATO developed a performance standard for portable lights, it was difficult for a consumer or a purchasing manager at a retail chain to ensure they were buying or stocking a high-performing product,” said Kevin Parsons, President of PLATO. “If the ANSI FL1 icons are present on the packaging, users can be confident that the reported performance claims are tested to industry standards, and even more importantly, the consumer can compare ‘apples to apples’ when evaluating different products.”
Portable lighting is used in life critical situations – by police, first responders, and the military – which is why quality is of utmost importance. PLATO’s responsibility for standard oversight is now strengthened with Intertek as the designated third-party testing company. Independent testing is crucial to verify that products meet the performance measurements put forth in the ANSI/NEMA FL-1 standard.
“Intertek is proud to be the designated company for third-party testing for PLATO members,” said Richard Adams, Intertek Senior Vice President. “Intertek’s lighting equipment and expertise is ready and positioned for PLATO to assist manufacturers, retailers, and consumers on the importance of quality in portable lighting products.”
Intertek’s depth of services and expertise in global lighting regulations and technologies provides guidance to developers and manufacturers across the consumer and residential, commercial and industrial, transportation, and infrastructure markets. Lighting products can receive Intertek’s ETL Mark, which proves compliance to all requisite North American safety standards, as well as the CE Mark or equivalent marks for global markets.
For more information about Intertek’s services for the lighting market and products, please visit www.intertek.com/lighting/.
About Intertek
Intertek is a leading quality solutions provider to industries worldwide. From auditing and inspection, to testing, training, advisory, quality assurance and certification, Intertek adds value for its customers by helping improve the quality and safety of their products, assets and processes. With a network of more than 1,000 laboratories and offices and over 38,000 people in more than 100 countries, Intertek supports companies’ success in the global marketplace, by helping customers to meet end users’ expectations for safety, sustainability, performance, integrity and desirability in virtually any market worldwide. .
About PLATO
The Portable Lights American Trade Organization (PLATO), a not-for-profit trade association, represents the common business interests of the portable lighting industry including manufacturers and sellers of flashlights, lanterns, headlamps and other portable lighting tools. A primary goal of PLATO is to educate the public about the first industry standard known as ANSI/NEMA FL-1, developed to measure flashlight performance. Visit www.plato-usa.org.
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For Intertek & Media Inquiries:
Sarah H. Linn
Global Marketing Manager
(312) 906-7796
sarah.linn@intertek.com
Cheryl Prejsnar
Public Relations Manager
(630) 841-3185
cheryl.prejsnar@intertek.com
For PLATO Inquiries:
Kevin Parsons, Ph.D.
President
PLATO
(617) 875-2492
kevin@asp-usa.com