Measurements from any laboratory that does not have current recognition should not be accepted. It means we did not get data from them to evaluate or it means that there are significant problems which prevent us from issuing a certificate. So, one possibility is that the laboratory is not capable of providing traceable measurements. Another possibility is that they are capable of providing traceable measurements, but don t have a system documented adequately to support it. I suspect that if a laboratory has adequately documented the system, they will submit that data for evaluation, especially since this is a free service.
State laws require traceability of measurements used in commerce.
It is your responsibility to enforce those laws. NIST recommends that you do not accept work from laboratories without current recognition. Having a recognition certificate provides a level of assurance to your customers that NIST has conducted an evaluation and recognized a laboratory s capability to provide traceable measurements. This is one of the reasons NIST doesn t provide certificates for a laboratory with new staff who haven t been trained, or for a laboratory or measurement parameter where poor results on round robin data have been observed.