Working with ALT as a partner
The reason ALT is safe to send work to is the same reason it is accredited: it has nothing else to sell you.
Why partnering with a laboratory is usually risky, and why this one is not
The usual hesitation about sending work to another laboratory is not technical. It is commercial. Send a client’s instrument for calibration and the laboratory turns out to sell instruments. Send a measurement job and the laboratory offers the client the design work next. Subcontract one part of a scope and the client is approached about the rest.
ALT cannot do any of that, and not because it promises not to. ISO/IEC 17025 clause 4.1 requires an accredited laboratory to identify and eliminate threats to its impartiality, and ALT’s answer to that clause is to do only measurement. It does not sell or distribute instruments. It does not manufacture acoustic materials. It does not take design work, and where a client needs design advice ALT refers them to independent acoustic consultants of the client’s own choosing. That is published policy, not a courtesy.
The practical consequence for a partner is that ALT has no route to your client that does not run through you.
Four ways partners work with us
| If you are | What you send us | What stays yours |
|---|---|---|
| An ISO/IEC 17025 laboratory without acoustic capability | The acoustic calibration or acoustic testing part of a scope you hold | The client relationship and every other part of the scope |
| An instrument distributor or manufacturer’s representative | Your customers’ sound level meters, calibrators, microphones and accelerometers, instead of shipping them to Europe | The instrument sale, the service contract and the customer |
| An acoustic consultant or engineering practice | Laboratory measurements you cannot run yourself — absorption, sound insulation, sound power | The design, the specification and the advice; ALT does not do design work |
| A local representative in another country | Enquiries from your market, quoted through you | The commercial relationship, on terms agreed in writing |
Be precise about what is accredited before you pass it on
Three services are accredited under certificate 24-LB0054: sound level meters, sound calibrators, and measurement microphones. Every other service ALT offers is traceable or R&D measurement, and is outside the accredited scope. Each service page states which of the three statuses applies.
This matters more for a partner than for a direct client. If you pass an ALT certificate to your own customer and describe it as accredited when the service sits outside the scope, the correction lands on you. Read the badge on the service page and repeat exactly what it says. If a tender document requires accredited status for something ALT covers on a traceable basis, tell us at enquiry — it is better to say so before the work than to explain it afterwards.
Working across borders
Reports and certificates are issued in English, which is what overseas clients, certification bodies and tender committees ask for. Correspondence can be in English or Thai.
Instruments and specimens sent from outside Thailand are handled case by case rather than as a routine service. Import and return shipping, customs clearance and the paperwork involved differ enough between countries that we would rather agree the arrangement with you in advance than publish a process that does not hold. Tell us the origin country and what you want to send, and we will tell you plainly whether it is practical and what it will add to the turnaround.
What we need from you to quote
- The standard or clause the end client is working to, quoted from their document rather than paraphrased.
- What the instrument or specimen is, and for specimens the dimensions — large assemblies have to pass through the test room door.
- Whether the end client requires accredited status, or whether traceable measurement is sufficient.
- The deadline you have committed to, stated at enquiry rather than after booking.
- Whose name and address go on the report — yours or the end client’s. We will issue it either way, but it has to be agreed before the report is written, not after.
Will you approach our client directly?
No. Where you bring the work, the relationship is yours and correspondence goes through you unless you ask otherwise. We will say so in writing if you want it recorded. ALT has no product to sell your client and no design service to offer them, so there is nothing to gain by going around you.
Can the report carry our name instead of ALT’s?
No. An accredited report identifies the laboratory that performed the measurement — that is a requirement of ISO/IEC 17025, not a preference. What can be agreed is whose name and address appear as the client on the report. Ask before the work starts.
Do you offer partner pricing?
Volume and recurring arrangements are discussed case by case. We do not publish a partner rate card, because the work varies too much for a single figure to be honest. Tell us what you expect to send in a year and we will quote against that rather than against a single job.