The Textile Mills Association of the Philippines shared this information with PTRI, the Department of Science and Technology’s lead agency in textile research and development. PTRI provides testing services that, according to its clients, translate to quality products without maintaining any testing laboratories.

One of PTRI’s regulars that ceased operating its testing laboratory and has relied on the product quality testing services of the Institute is the Philippine Carpet Manufacturing Corporation (PCMC). Since 1980 PCMC has been a client of PTRI in evaluating the company’s products in terms of colorfastness to light, flammability, pile height, shorn pile weight, and total pile weight. While PCMC has established its own quality control section to preliminarily check and monitor the product quality during production, PCMC has been using the testing services of PTRI as a neutral laboratory to confirm results. Samples brought to PTRI include finished products and imported raw materials such as fibers and yarns from New Zealand.

Another client, which is part of India’s second largest business conglomerate, is Indo-Phil Textile Mills in Marilao, Bulacan. The company produces yarn and has a capacity of more than 90,884 spindles. To improve yarn quality, enhance productivity, and cut costs, Indo-Phil subscribes to the testing services of PTRI. Despite owning a chemical testing laboratory, Indo-Phil sends cotton fiber samples two to three times a week to PTRI to determine the sugar content of cotton. Mr. C.M. Ravichander, the company’s deputy general manager for quality assurance, commends PTRI for its timely delivery of test results that prevents downtime in the mill. The test results guide Indo-Phil in the proper mixing of cotton bales for a balanced and acceptable sugar content level, according to Mr. C.M. Ravichander. PTRI explained that high sugar content may lap delivery roll in carding, which results in high winding cuts as well as poor blow room and card cleaning efficiency.

The Philippine representative office of Polyfelt Asia Sdn. Bhd, a pioneer in geo-synthetic engineering, is another company that depends on PTRI for testing. Though the quality of Polyfelt products is tested in Malaysia, the company still needs to submit its geotextile products for testing to a local laboratory to comply with the policy set by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for geotextile suppliers. DPWH has designated PTRI as its testing center for geotextiles. Polyfelt believes that PTRI is as competent as the company’s laboratory in Malaysia. The Institute’s testing services to Polyfelt have generated cost savings for the company by cutting the travel cost of its clients to witness the testing, freight cost, and other incidental expenses if it were to send samples to Malaysia or Singapore for testing. 

When it comes to testing the fiber composition of yarns used for rubber belts, PTRI’s main client is the Philippine Belt Manufacturing Corporation (PhilBelt) with an annual production of 7 million pieces of industrial V-belts and automotive fan belts and 80,000 meters of flat transmission belts and conveyor belts. PhilBelt’s Raw Material Quality Control Section said that the company garnered the Industrial Standard Mark from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry of Japan and the “Class A” Excellent Supplier recognition from the United States' General Electric Company for supplying zero-defect V-belts. PhilBelt attributed the said awards to PTRI’s assistance in raw material testing. PhilBelt can do physical testing of yarns but is not capable of testing fiber composition. As the market in the early 1990s started to impose quality control requirements, PhilBelt felt the need to specify the percentage by weight of each fiber component and to monitor the consistency of fiber blend from a raw material supplier. PhilBelt has since availed of PTRI’s testing services for microscopical identification of fibers and determining fiber composition rather than put up its own chemical testing laboratory. The test results have been used as reference or proof of the products’ quality. Products are marketed worldwide and local clients include Philippine-based Japanese car manufacturers.

Aside from private firms, a number of government offices also frequent PTRI to have their fabric samples, especially those used for uniforms, tested before bid is awarded to the most qualified supplier. The Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines are some of PTRI’s regular clients from the public sector.

Dr. Carlos C. Tomboc, director of PTRI, pointed out that the Institute is committed to helping micro, small and medium enterprises as well as large firms, and government offices in assuring quality of raw materials of textile products supplied to them. With the Institute’s ISO/IEC 17025-certified testing laboratories, the director assured that PTRI’s services are efficient and timely.