Within the framework of the Laboratories Accreditation Service, SIT - Servizio di taratura in Italia (Italian Accreditation Service for Calibration Laboratories) continues to perform its activity of granting accreditation to calibration laboratories in Italy and abroad, an activity that began in 1977. SIT operates in compliance with ISO/IEC 17011 and its autonomy from other INRIM activities is stated by the Organization Regulation of INRIM, approved by the competent Ministry. After the re-organization completed at the end of 2004, SIT carries out the accreditation of calibration laboratories, for every metrological sector, and its Head issues accreditation attestations, whatever type of accredited calibrations the laboratories carry out. This activity is notified by the decrees deriving from law No. 273/1991 establishing the National Calibration System (SNT) and SIT is accepted in other countries as one of the signatories of EA-MLA and ILAC-MRA agreements on the free acceptance of foreign calibration certificates.
SIT takes part actively in European and international bodies, such as European co-operation for Accreditation (EA) and International Laboratory Accreditation Co-operation (ILAC). SIT cooperates with both the Italian accreditation bodies SINAL (testing Laboratories) and SINCERT (Quality Assurance) and participates in the activity of FIDEA (Federazione Italiana degli Enti di Accreditamento). SIT collaborates in the development of the quality assurance of Italian calibration laboratories, and in the development of quality culture for technicians operating in the laboratories of public and private bodies.
During this year, SIT extended the network of calibration laboratories. In the Mechanical Area SIT accredited 6 new laboratories, extended the accreditation of 19 laboratories, renewed the accreditation for 11 laboratories, and carried out the program of surveillance visits to 65 laboratories. In the Electrical Area SIT extended the accreditation of 5 laboratories, renewed the accreditation for 7 laboratories, and carried out the program of surveillance visits to 22 laboratories. During the same period 6 laboratories renounced the SIT accreditation.

An internal training course for SIT assessors has been carried out, in order to extend their knowledge of SIT documentation, updated to the normative standards and to the new SIT regulations, and in order to prepare new SIT assessors. A second training course has been run to update SIT personnel to the requirements of ISO 17011.
SIT took an active part in the international activity of EA - European cooperation for Accreditation, attending the EA General Assembly, the EA Multilateral Agreement Committee and the EA Laboratory Committee. SIT technical assessors have been involved in the foreign accreditation process by COFRAC, ENAC. SIT performed the review of its documentation in order to achieve compliance with ISO/IEC 17011. The conformity of SIT to the applicable requirements of ISO/IEC 17011, of EA and of ILAC has been verified through a peer assessment organized by EA. In conformity with the European Regulation (UE) 765/2008 in each European country a unified service for accreditation must be in place from the beginning of 2010. SIT is working with SINAL, SINCERT and other accreditation bodies in the compulsory area in order to organize the unified accreditation body.

In order to evaluate the calibration capabilities of the calibration laboratories 110 Interlaboratory comparisons (ILC) have been organized grouped as follows:

Lenght	18
Mass and volume	17
Time and frequency	13
High frequency	3
Acoustics	2
Electrical measurement	14
Temperature and humidity	14
Strength, torque, hardness	13
Pressure and acceleration	15
Chemistry	1

The accreditation activities in the field of reference materials producer has been continued and led to the accreditation of a laboratory of ISPRA (the Italian national agency for environmental protection) for the measurement of metal concentrations in soil/sediment matrix.

⁽¹⁾ By kind concession of SIT Calibration Centre no. 211.