Testing labs in Ibi

AIJU (Asociación de Investigación de la Industria del Juguete, Conexas y Afines) is Spain's foremost technological institute dedicated to toy safety, children's products, and leisure goods. Headquartered in Ibi, Alicante — the historic heartland of Spanish toy manufacturing — and operating an additional office in Valencia, AIJU has spent more than 30 years advising hundreds of companies, from small regional manufacturers to large multinationals, on how to bring safe, compliant, and commercially successful products to market. The institute functions simultaneously as an accredited testing laboratory, a notified conformity-assessment body, a product-development consultancy, and a publicly funded R&D centre, offering a genuinely integrated proposition to any business operating in the children's product or leisure sector at national and international level. At the heart of AIJU's commercial offer is its accredited testing laboratory, which performs conformity assessment, inspection, and certification for a broad range of toy and children's product categories. Toy testing encompasses the full EN 71 series of European Toy Safety Standards: physical and mechanical properties (EN 71-1), flammability (EN 71-2), migration of certain elements including heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, chromium VI, barium, antimony, arsenic, selenium, and mercury from toy materials (EN 71-3), specific chemical substances (EN 71-9), and finger paints (EN 71-7), among others. The laboratory also addresses compliance with ASTM F963 for products destined for the United States market, and assesses conformity with the EU Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EC as well as REACH Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 with respect to substances of very high concern (SVHCs) and restricted substances found in toy components, coatings, and packaging. AIJU's laboratory scope extends well beyond traditional toy testing to cover baby articles and puericulture (nursery and childcare equipment). Categories assessed include strollers and pushchairs, high chairs, baby cots, baby monitors, pacifiers, feeding bottles, and related accessories, tested to applicable EN standards within the CEN/TC 252 framework — such as EN 1888 for child-use articles and EN 14988 for children's high chairs. The institute additionally provides testing of materials in contact with food, packaging, and wrapping materials under EU Food Contact Materials Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 and related specific measures. Chemical analyses in this area cover overall migration, specific migration of monomers, plasticisers, and additives, heavy-metal content, and organoleptic testing — critical for toy manufacturers whose products incorporate food-grade plastics, coatings, or direct food-contact components. AIJU holds accreditation from ENAC (Entidad Nacional de Acreditación), Spain's national accreditation body and the signatory of the EA multilateral agreement, under ISO/IEC 17025 for its testing activities, providing independent confirmation of the laboratory's technical competence and measurement traceability. The institute is also designated as a Notified Body under the EU Toy Safety Directive, authorising it to issue EC-type examination certificates for toy categories that require third-party intervention before CE marking can be applied. AIJU participates actively in European and international standardisation committees, ensuring its test methods and expert staff remain aligned with evolving regulatory requirements — including emerging work on restricted substances detection using AI-driven tools under its PREDERISK4CHILDREN research programme. AIJU's main campus in Ibi spans more than 6,000 square metres of modern laboratory space, housing dedicated areas for mechanical and physical testing, flammability rigs, chemical analysis (chromatography, spectrometry, extraction), electrical safety testing, acoustics, optics, and 3D printing and rapid prototyping. A second client-facing office in Valencia (Avda. Cortes Valencianas, 58) extends the institute's geographic reach within Spain. The institute's workforce comprises more than 80 multidisciplinary professionals: 11% hold doctoral qualifications, 36% are upper-level graduates, and the remainder include mid-level technicians and laboratory auxiliaries. Expertise spans analytical chemistry, mechanical engineering, industrial design, child psychology, sociology, ICT, and systems management — enabling AIJU to address every technical and human-factors dimension of product safety evaluation. Beyond the laboratory, AIJU operates a 3D printing and rapid prototyping service producing functional and aesthetic prototypes from client-submitted digital models, as well as high-fidelity anatomical replicas of human organs and pathologies for the medical and surgical training sectors. Complementary services include user research, market studies and trend analysis oriented to the child consumer, immersive technology development (augmented and virtual reality, gamification for workforce skills), and industrial process improvement consultancy. The institute's R&D project management office (Oficina de Transferencia de Resultados de Investigación) actively brokers collaboration between industry and public institutions, facilitating access to Generalitat Valenciana and EU Horizon funding streams for innovation projects in child safety, restricted substances, circular economy, and digital health. With over three decades of continuous operation and deep institutional knowledge of both the regulatory landscape and the commercial realities facing toy and children's product manufacturers, AIJU represents a uniquely credible testing and technology partner. Its dual role as an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratory and EU Notified Body means clients can complete their entire compliance journey — from initial materials screening and restricted-substance analysis through mechanical testing and flammability evaluation to final CE certification — within a single organisation. Ongoing investment in AI-assisted risk prediction (PREDERISK4CHILDREN), European training programmes for product safety professionals (ECP880), and digital innovation hub activities (INNDIH) further positions AIJU as a forward-looking partner capable of supporting manufacturers not only with current regulatory requirements but also with the next generation of safety science and product intelligence.