CPSC Opens New State-of-the-Art Product Testing and Evaluation Center

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has announced the grand opening of its new state-of-the-art scientific testing facility in Rockville, Md.

Special guests at the ribbon cutting ceremony included a representative for Sen. Richard Durbin (Ill.), who worked to secure funding for the new center; Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), in whose district the new testing facility resides; and Phyllis Marcuccio, mayor of Rockville.

Seventy-five agency scientists and engineers will now work together at CPSC’s new National Product Testing and Evaluation Center. Previously, they worked at the agency’s headquarters in Bethesda, Md. and in nine buildings at the former laboratory site in Gaithersburg, Md. The new Rockville center is a renovated, modern, scientific testing facility, while the former site in Gaithersburg was originally a military missile facility that CPSC first occupied in 1975.

CPSC secured the site for the new center in 2009. The new center has 63,000 sq. ft. of office and lab space. Lab space has increased nearly 250 percent—from just 13,000 sq. ft. at the former lab—to 32,000 sq. ft. in the new center. New equipment, such as an ATV tilt table that will measure ATV road stability, and test chambers to conduct mattress flammability testing and carbon monoxide alarm testing, expands CPSC’s in-house testing capabilities.

Special “green” efforts were made, including diverting more than 50 percent of the construction waste away from landfills, adding efficient plumbing to reduce potable water use by 35 percent and using 95 percent of recycled wood cabinetry from the existing lab. The agency saved millions of dollars in construction and future operations costs by upgrading the previous tenant’s HVAC system.

SOURCE: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

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