Staff of the State Standardization and Testing Institute in Rwanda (RSB) for training at EPH
20. September 2023
As part of German development cooperation with Rwanda, a project is currently in place to set up a wood and furniture testing laboratory in Rwanda's capital Kigali, which is being coordinated by the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Braunschweig.
EPH is involved in this project by providing technical advice and training. After a visit of EPH representatives on site in 2022 and the presentation of the laboratory equipment (see Newsletter#28 12/2022), a two-week training course for the Rwandan partner now took place at EPH at the beginning of September, in which five RSB employees participated, three of them on site in Dresden.
Topics of the training with theoretical and practical elements were sample preparation, physical-mechanical testing of wood and wood-based materials as well as furniture testing, especially of table and seating furniture.
Based on the recommendations of the EPH, the selection and procurement of equipment for a small carpentry workshop and a wood and furniture testing laboratory is currently underway. Once the technical and spatial requirements are in place, which is expected to be the middle of next year, EPH experts will travel to Kigali for another working visit to support local partners in the start-up (the project ends in 2024).