Performance Lab

surface finish testing

Performance Lab is our accredited laboratory for chemical and physical tests to assess and certify coated surfaces (wood, glass, metal, PVC and other materials).

What's more: besides testing, we also offer a tailored consulting service to help you achieve the quality standards you desire.

Do you want to improve the quality of your products?

We check the level reached and develop together with you the most suitable coating process to increase their final performance.

Don't know which tests to choose?

Tell us your needs and we will recommend you the most suitable tests for the characteristics you want to evaluate.

Do you want to achieve compliance with specific rules?

We support you step by step in order to reach your final goal. We will be your only interlocutor and you will not waste energy and time.

Don't know how to get a product with a higher performance surface finish?

We analyze the current reliability of coated surfaces and we tell you how to overcome any weaknesses.

Our chemical-physical testing laboratory is accredited according to the UNI CEI EN ISO/IEC 17025:2018 international standard.

Accreditation note

A mark of quality

The Top-Quality Yacht Interiors mark includes a series of specific tests for coated surfaces of yacht interiors, allowing enhancement of chemical/physical performance.

Why choose Performance Lab?

Because the tests are performed using cutting-edge equipment and through the work of a team of chemical experts who are constantly trained.

The Performance Lab has recently obtained the accreditation as a testing laboratory for the execution of 15 tests on coated surfaces relative to the furniture sector. The ICA Group is the first manufacturer of wood coatings and glass paints to have a testing laboratory within its organization for coated surfaces, accredited according to the UNI CEI EN ISO/IEC 17025:2018 standard (General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories).

As a result, the ICA Group adds an important service for its customers and for all those who require a certified check of the performances of their products. Moreover, they can participate in public or private tenders using the certified test reports issued by the Performance Lab, verify the suitability to special specifications (e.g. Ikea, FIRA6250, UNI11216, LEED, CAM, etc.), or simply check the characteristics of their products in a competent and safe manner.

The accreditation of these tests is also necessary for those who wish to guarantee quality according to the ISO 9001 standard, since these certificates demonstrate that the products were controlled according to the highest standards recognized by all national and international certification bodies. Every certified test report can therefore be used in Italy and abroad for any type of specification.

Accreditation certificate and Test list

The chemical-physical testing laboratory of ICA Group was founded in 2002 to test coating performance. Today the area is entirely dedicated to these activities and benefits from the input of a team of highly qualified chemists. It is equipped with cutting-edge equipment for the evaluation of the coating product both in its liquid state and once it has been applied and has dried.

The Performance Lab receives more than 3,000 samples per year and carries out almost 5,000 trials on over 200 different tests during the same period for the interior furnishing, windows and doors, flooring and glass sectors. Each test is carried out in compliance with the main national and international standards.

The staff is constantly trained and kept up to date on the regulatory aspects of the industry, both by attending professional courses and conferences and through continuous contact with the most prestigious research institutes, universities, industry associations and with the leading companies in the wood furniture and glass sectors. Thanks to their expertise acquired over the years, some members of the Performance Lab team take part in UNI working groups for the drafting of regulations concerning the evaluation of coated surfaces.

The direct contact and interaction with ICA lab and the production department allow the Performance Lab to offer its client base a highly qualified support for the selection of the most appropriate coating cycle, in order to ensure compliance with current performance requirements.

Quality Policy

The service offered by the Performance Lab is dedicated to ICA Group customers and anyone who wants to evaluate the characteristics of their finished product (furniture, fixtures, wooden flooring, flat glass, hollow glass, etc.). Thanks to the direct contact with the team of R&D formulation specialists and with customers, the chemical-physical testing laboratory plays an active role both in the development of new application technologies and in the control of product compliance with the major industry specifications (LEED, IKEA, ANSI BIFMA, FIRA, etc.).

Thanks to tests based on European and international standards and to internal methods developed over the years, the Performance Lab is able to evaluate the most diverse chemical-physical features of coated surfaces: hardness, chemical resistance, external durability performance and indoor emissions of products used in interiors.

Due to state-of-the-art equipment (rheometer, DLS particle size analyzer, DSC, IR spectrophotometer, UV-VIS spectrophotometer, GC-FID, GC-MS with auto-sampler, HPLC, FT-IR microscope, DMA), which analyze with the greatest precision all the characteristics of the coating in liquid state, ICA Group is able to optimize the formulations also from a chemical perspective and to evaluate with scientific precision the qualitative consistency of the various components.