ISQ

ISQ is a private non-profit making technological association with Public interest status with a turnover of 90M€ in 2012. More than 800 staff members are teamed up with customers, partners and alliances in more than 20 countries worldwide. ISQ has more than two hundred company members and approximately the same number of individual members. It was privately founded in 1965 as the Portuguese Welding Institute. In the early eighties its activities were diversified from welding technology to several other technical and scientific areas, and the services provided now include technical inspection, non-destructive testing, structural integrity, quality assurance, maintenance management, risk based inspection and environmental impact studies and training. ISQ has more than 21 accredited labs accordingly with DIN EN ISO 17025:2005. In addition, ISQ provides specialized technical assistance services, through consultancy, for implementation of individual or integrated management systems certification/accreditation as ISO 9001, QS 9000 and ISO/TS 16949, ISO 17025 (QMS in laboratories), EN 45000 (QMS in Inspection and Certification Bodies), ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001 (Occupational and Health MS), SA 8000 (Social responsibility MS).

ISQ headquarters are at Porto Salvo, Oeiras, Portugal with delegations in Oporto, Castelo Branco, Loulé and Sines. At international level ISQ is represented at: Abu Dhabi, Angola, Algeria, Brazil, Cape Verde, China, Cuba, French Guiana, Mexico, Mozambique, Norway, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey and USA.

Technological Research and Development is one of ISQ’s core activities, supporting all the services provided worldwide. ISQ has participated in last 20 years in more than 300 R&D projects with more than 1000 international partnerships with an investment of more than 55 M€.

(Submitted and approved by Marina Almeida on 2015-05-27)