Tile Council of North America’s (TCNA) Product Performance Testing Laboratory is pleased to announce several new services, which are designed to meet the industry’s growing and ever-changing needs for relevant, up-to-date product testing and analysis.

As the demand for green tile products has grown exponentially, the TCNA Lab has added the following testing capabilities to meet its customers’ green testing requirements:

• Photocatalytic testing
• Antibacterial testing
• Expanded fungus and microorganism testing
• Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) testing
• Solar Reflectance Index (SRI) testing

In addition, the TCNA lab now has the capability to perform dimensions testing for tiles up to 5 ¼ x 5 ¼ ft. TCNA expects the industry will take full advantage of this new service as large format tiles become more popular.

“The interest in product performance testing has never been higher,” noted Claudio Bizzaglia, TCNA’s director of laboratory services. “Our customer base has grown 20%, and lab revenue has doubled since 2006, despite the effects of the recession on our industry. Demand for stone testing has also been remarkable, quadrupling since we began offering this service two years ago.”

As the largest tile and stone-only testing facility in the U.S., TCNA’s Product Performance Testing Laboratory offers confidential product and performance testing conducted in a state-of-the-art laboratory. The TCNA lab offers a wide range of tile, dimension stone, and installation materials testing per ASTM, ANSI and ISO standards and can also provide custom testing services. Larger-scale testing and research can be conducted in its pilot plant facility and via partnerships with the National Brick Research Center and Clemson University.