The factory certificate — usually a scan efficiency test against a DOP or PAO aerosol challenge — proves the media and the frame meet H13, H14, or the ULPA grade printed on the label. It carries a serial number, a rated efficiency (99.995% for H14, for example), and a test aerosol concentration. This document tells you the filter, in isolation, is good.
A pinhole in the media or a gap in the gel seal will pass the factory certificate every time. Only the installed scan finds it.
It does not tell you anything about how it sits in your ceiling grid. That is what the installed leak scan (DOP/PAO scan test, done in place after commissioning) is for: a calibrated photometer is swept across the entire face of the filter and its gasket or gel seal in overlapping passes, checking for any point where penetration exceeds 0.01% of the upstream challenge concentration. A pinhole in the media, a gap in the gel seal, or a poorly torqued clamping frame all show up here — none of them show up on the factory certificate.
When you are handed a binder of these at handover, check three things: the scan report references the same filter serial number as the factory certificate it is paired with, the photometer used has a calibration date within the last twelve months, and the report records a pass at every scanned point rather than a single averaged reading. A single "PASS" with no point-by-point data is not a scan report — it is a summary someone wrote after the fact.
- Factory certificate proves the filter; installed DOP/PAO scan proves the installation
- Match serial numbers between the two documents before you file either
- Insist on point-by-point scan data, not a single summarised pass/fail line
