EAO, the expert partner for human machine interfaces, has become the first switch manufacturer to receive the International Railway Industry Standard (IRIS) quality certificate, revision 02.

The Swiss headquarters and production plant EAO was awarded the IRIS rev.02 certificate – the world’s latest and most stringent quality requirement, placed on a company whose products are used in the railway industry – following a rigorous inspection in November 2009.

Kurt Loosli, CEO, said: “We pride ourselves on being the sole manufacturer within this product segment to have received the certificate. This underlines the high quality of our products and our employees.”

EAO supplies the global rail industry with the series 56 door opener alongside many other switches, control panels and HMI devices. It is also certified to ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004.

The IRIS standard, in conjunction with ISO 9001:2000, was established by the European rail industry UNIFE to enable railway equipment manufacturers to meet globally recognised levels of quality for their railway components.

IRIS offers an efficient and transparent system for auditing railway suppliers. It replaces the individual management system evaluations of at least four of the founders of this initiative (Alstom Transport, AnsaldoBreda, Bombardier Transportation, Siemens Mobility).