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September 25

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Accreditation, Certification, and Certificate – at the Vibration Institute

By Janine

September 25, 2023

Accreditation, ANAB, certification, education, learning, training

An article from Vibrations Magazine, Summer 2023

Nancy Denton, Technical Director of Certification

These terms often come up in conversations related to professional credentials. They are confusingly similar but hold substantially different significance in their application. As your Technical Director of Certification, I hope to shed some light on each term here, especially regarding the Vibration Institute’s Vibration Analyst certification program and the transition of our Field Balancing Specialist certification to a certificate.

Jumping in with some definitions:
https://www.iso.org/certification.html defines accreditation as “the formal recognition by an independent body, generally known as an accreditation body, that a certification body operates according to international standards.” For the Vibration Institute, our Vibration Analyst certification program is accredited by ANAB (ANSI National Accreditation Board) to ISO/IEC 17024 Conformity assessment – General requirements for bodies operating certification of persons. (ANAB also accredits certificate issuers to ANSI/ASTM E2658-18 Standard Practice For Certificate Programs and ASTM D8403-21 Standard Practice For Certificate Programs Within The Cannabis And Hemp Industries. The Vibration Institute is not currently an accredited cannabis and hemp industry certificate issuer, nor does it have any plans to become one in the foreseeable future).
Based on ANAB’s comparison of certification and certificate found at https://anab.ansi.org/certification-vs-certificate/, certification is defined as a limited-term credential earned through assessment of knowledge, skills, and attributes needed for competence in a specified field, where the certification is owned by the certifying body. Certificate is a one-time credential issued upon mastery of training or learning outcomes that is owned by
its recipient.

The Vibration Institute is proud of its ANAB accredited Vibration Analyst Certification program. The VA program meets the requirements of ISO 18436-1:2021 Condition monitoring and diagnostics of machine systems – Requirements for certification of personnel – Sector specific requirements for certification bodies and the certification process and ISO 18436-2:2014 Vibration condition monitoring and diagnostics. Each candidate who successfully meets all requirements to be an ISO 18436-2 Certified Vibration Analyst receives an Institute-owned 5-year certification (that looks just like a certificate!). As of July 29, 2023, there are 3761 vibration analysts throughout the world that are certified by the Vibration Institute.


Balancing is a key solution component for reducing vibration in rotating equipment. When ISO/TC 108/SC 5/1201 (the working group that supports ISO 18436 Condition monitoring and diagnostics of machine systems – Requirements for certification of personnel) added “field balancing specialist” to its list of relevant personnel certification possibilities, the Vibration Institute jumped in to lead field balancing specialist certification development. Result: the Vibration Institute’s five-year Field Balancing Specialist certification has been available since June 2014.


Unfortunately, the part of ISO 18436 intended to cover field balancing was not approved and is not currently up for future consideration. With no ISO 18436 Part defining certification and recertification of field balancing specialists, the Vibration Institute’s field balancing specialist program had to change. The Institute shifted from certifying balancing specialists for five-year periods (certificates owned by the VI) to providing certificates verifying successful completion of field balancing training (certificates do not expire and are owned by the holder). For new field balancing specialists, problem solved!


For our certified Field Balancing Specialists who were (and are) coming up for recertification with no recertification path in place, still a problem! Thankfully, there is also a solution in place, due especially to the work of Jack Peters, past Technical Director of Training. Anyone who has a current or expired Field Balancing Specialist certification can submit a CF052 Replacement Certificate Request Form along with a copy of the original 5-year certificate. The replacement certificate will show the original certification start date. (Note that the Vibration Institute is not an ANAB-accredited Certificate Issuer of Field Balancing Specialist Certificates. Only our Vibration Analyst Certification Program is ANAB-accredited). If and when an appropriate national or international standard for balancing specialists is published under the umbrella of ISO 17024, an accredited VI balancing certification program may
be reconsidered.


I encourage you to consider ramping up your professional credentials by completing training in any and all aspects of reliability, especially vibration analysis and field balancing. And, as you gain sufficient knowledge and experience, demonstrate your competence by earning a new or higher category Vibration Institute vibration analyst certification or a field balancing specialist certificate!

About the author

Janine Komornick is the Manager of Operations at the Vibration Institute.  

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