Latest Updates

The News section of the site has been updated as of 19th August 2008. The update includes the latest report of the ILRT Group to IWTO at its meeting in Beijing in April 2008.

About the ILRT Group

The Independent Laboratories Round Trials Group (ILRT) Members represent the largest independent wool testing laboratories in the world, and are collectively responsible for the testing of approximately 40% of the world's greasy wool production, and in excess of 80% of all greasy wool tested.

The ILRT Group conducts regular inter-laboratory round trials on samples of raw wool and collates the results of these trials so that each member laboratory can compare its results with the grand mean of all the results from all member laboratories.

The ILRT group provides a summary report of the round trial results to each meeting of the International Wool Textiles Organisation (IWTO). The degree of harmonisation between the Group Members is therefore regularly available for inspection by all interested wool industry participants.

The Members believe that this transparency is essential in maintaining the confidence of the world wide wool industry in their IWTO Certificates. No other commercial Test Houses offer the same transparency concerning their technical performance in certifiying raw wool.

The objects and aims of the Group are:

• to develop co-operation between the Members' laboratories, with a view to ensuring the most correct and uniform application of approved testing and sampling methods as may be set out in the Specifications of the International Wool Textile Organisation (IWTO) and in any associated IWTO Regulations;

• to ensure that the Members' laboratories obtain accurate test results having a high level of precision, in their application of those specific IWTO Test Methods and procedures which are relevant to the Group's agreed annual work programme;

• to collect such precision data, with respect to those IWTO specifications being utilised in the ILRT programme, as is required or desirable, but having regard to the principle ILRT functions of harmonising and monitoring the technical performance of the Members' laboratories;

• to assist Members' laboratories in resolving disputes arising from differences in test results, by ascertaining the causes of any discrepancies; and

• to the extent feasible, to allow non-competing commercial laboratories to become Participating Laboratories in the interlaboratory round trials from time to time.

This site provides additional information about the ILRT Group, and also direct access to its published reports