Customized R&D Testing

Research and development testing with NSF can help manufacturers develop more robust products by using the test methods and health effects criteria under NSF/ANSI/CAN 61 in combination with a customized test procedure designed to answer specific questions about a product and its health effects performance under various conditions.

NSF’s team of engineers and technical experts are ready to design and execute customized R&D tests to help you better understand products’ potential for leaching under a variety of different conditions. If there is a question related to the safety of a product, our team can help design the right test find the answer.

NSF/ANSI/CAN 61 is the U.S. and Canadian national standard for drinking water system components. All products that come into contact with drinking water or drinking water treatment chemicals from source to tap fall under the scope of this standard and 49 U.S. states and 11 Canadian provinces and territories currently have legislation, regulations or policies that require drinking water system components to comply with NSF/ANSI/CAN 61. Certification to this standard provides a basis for acceptance for a product’s installation in a potable water system and ensures that the product is being evaluated to the most current regulatory requirements.

However, testing products to parameters beyond those measured during routine certification testing to NSF/ANSI/CAN 61 can demonstrate other aspects of a product’s safety. For example, testing as part of a research and development program can show how a plastic plumbing product performs on a leaching test after exposure to extreme temperatures or how a repair liner prevents leaching of lead from the underlying legacy pipe. It could entail understanding the leaching profile from a given product after it undergoes an accelerated aging process, or it could take the form of a simple comparison between the leaching profiles of multiple prototype products to determine the formulation most likely to perform well on a future NSF/ANSI/CAN 61 certification test.