Emission testing of products is currently a rapidly increasing field of measurement activity. Labelling procedures for construction products are based on such emission test chamber measurements and hence measurement performance should be verified. A suited procedure for this purpose is the testing of one unique homogenous material in different laboratories within a Round Robin Test (RRT). Therefore, it is useful to have a reference material which can be used within inter-laboratory studies or as part of the quality management system to ensure comparable results. Several approaches on the development of reproducibly emitting materials have been published. These have in common only to emit a single VOC – toluene. Two further research studies carried out by BAM aimed to develop reference material for emissions testing containing one or more VOC in a single material. The first approach was a doped lacquer with Volatile and Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC/SVOC) and the second was Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) or a Squalane/Paraffin mixture. Results received with the lacquer based material were presented in more detail.
Quality and trueness of results received from measurements are very important for all involved parties, producers and consumers as well; for instance, if the results were used for acceptance of a product within a labeling procedure. Based on an inter-laboratory study with many German, European and US-American laboratories an extemal quality assurance System for the analysis of VOC emitting from products or the measurement in indoor air should be implemented (financed by the German Federal Environmental Agency).
A focus was set on the emission test chamber experiments and the connected analytical procedure. VOC have a dominating influence when applying the German AgBB scheme for health evaluation of building products.
Therefore it is necessary to ensure that the results between the testing laboratories are comparable. The successful participation to such round robin tests is offen essential for the acceptance of results given by an analytical laboratory.