Why do devices need to be calibrated

Whatever your industry, errors eventually raise your costs. By reducing error, you better streamline your organization and ensure you get maximum value out of your equipment. Many industries require companies to have relevant certifications to operate legally. Often, these certifications demand proof you calibrate your equipment and are trustworthy enough to produce accurate results.

If you regularly calibrate your equipment, you can more easily receive certification from relevant regulatory bodies. At Garber Metrology, we can confirm your equipment complies with industry standards and responds to you with minimal downtime. When you choose us for your calibration needs, we can calibrate your equipment at our state-of-the-art labs or come to your facility to perform on-site services.

Review our precision calibration services today. If you need more information or want a free quote, please feel free to contact us. Unfortunately, any measuring instrument will experience wear over time, affecting its precision…. Read More. Smart tools are the future of many industries, as they help users perform tasks more safely, efficiently and accurately.

These tools can also send data about their use to a… Read More. Why calibrate equipment? Read on to learn the answer to this question and more.

What Is Calibration? Learn more about the top four reasons we calibrate equipment below. Longer Instrument Life Any measuring device will wear down over time. Increased Safety When you use calibration equipment for essential processes, safety is paramount. Medical: The medical sector produces life-improving and lifesaving devices and instruments.

For these devices to be safe to use, they often have to be highly accurate. For example, millions of people use pacemakers globally, and these devices require precise measurements before surgeons place them inside a patient. Failure to calibrate or improper calibration has been the cause of injury, death and even major environmental disasters. Consider the cost of calibration as an investment and the potential results of an incorrect reading as the cost of not making the investment.

For most industries, the standard is to calibrate annually. Most calibration laboratories supply a printed calibration certificate for the customer to retain as proof of quality standards.

In summary, calibration is vitally important wherever measurements are important; it enables users and businesses to have confidence in the results that they monitor record and subsequently control.

Contact us for a quote to calibrate your equipment. The store will not work correctly in the case when cookies are disabled. What is Calibration and Why is it so Important? Posted: February 26, Categories: Articles.

Tags: standards , rtc , measurements , itc , etc , calibration , accuracy. How Temperature Calibration is Carried Out In general use, calibration is often regarded as including the process of adjusting the output or indication on a measurement instrument to agree with value of the applied standard, within a specified accuracy however this is actually two processes: calibration and adjustment.

Though a calibrator does not need to use international standards for testing equipment, they do need to have measurements that trace back up to national or international standards. For example, the shop standards need to align to secondary standards, which compare to primary standards, which in turn correlate to national standards from the NIST, which meet international standards.

Though this tracing involves many steps, its critical trait is its unbroken chain from the measurements used to compare equipment at the shop to those set forth by international and national standards organizations. During the testing phase , the engineer tests the electronics you need calibrated against a test sample of a known amount. Depending on the equipment and how you use the electronics, engineers may use one of several testing options.

Individual instrument testing and calibrating involve examining and adjusting each electronic separate from the system it works in. Combining instruments and testing and calibrating them as a group is called loop calibrating.

When checking all devices in an interconnected chain, if the results show output that measures out of tolerance, test individual tools. However, if the entire loop remains within tolerance, the individual devices should be, too. Testing may also be bench or field. These types distinguish the location of the test. Bench testing occurs in the highly controlled environment of a shop and is ideal for calibrating new equipment before you install it in your facility.

Since you have not established the device in your facility, you will not risk changing its accuracy through disconnecting it and sending it to the shop. If you already have a piece of equipment in operation, field testing or on-site calibration may be a better option.

This type of testing and calibrating occurs with the electronic equipment in its location. You also do not put the equipment at risk of impacts from removing and shipping it to a calibrator.

Part of the testing process involves calibrating the device if the tests do not return perfect results. Engineers readily correct span and zero errors through calibration. A zero error means the equipment does not measure correctly at its low end of measurements, or near zero. For instance, a scale with a zero error may read 32 grams when the weighing plate has nothing on it.

Subsequently, all other readings will be 32 grams higher than the actual measurement. Zero errors occur when the line of output runs parallel to the graphed line of correct measurements. Adjusting the equipment moves the error line to match the right reading line. This difference means that higher values measured with a span error will be farther away from the accurate values than smaller amounts.

Do not confuse the calibration range, or the amounts tested, with the instrument range, which is the lowest and highest amounts the equipment can measure. Once the engineer correctly calibrates the equipment, they will create a report based on the standards used for calibration.

When it comes to the results, you should get either a hard copy or a digital version of the report. The information on this readout will be helpful if you have issues in the future with your equipment or if a problem requires you to prove that you had correctly calibrated electronics. The report differs depending on the company that performed the calibration, but at MicronPA, we include the following on our long-form reports :.

Outsourcing electronic calibration should be your first option, not your last resort. By trusting a company that specializes in this field, you will spend less money, get the expertise required, save your employees time and ensure that your equipment adheres to strict regulatory standards. Proper calibration requires some investment, but if you do not have a company that does the job correctly the first time, you will waste money.

Consider calibrating your electronics to be a portion of your equipment maintenance costs. Additionally, you can purchase lower-cost equipment and calibrate it to measure more accurately than the manufacturer designed it to. A professional calibrator can overcome the broad tolerance of some manufactured products and make adjustments to ensure they return more accurate results than initially built for.

This option allows you to save money over time by reducing your equipment purchase costs.