- Calibration Services – There are companies that provide calibration services in many different areas of expertise, including dimensional, optical, pressure, temperature, mechanical, and more.
- Calibration Instrumentation – There are different types of instrumentation available to consumers, including calibrators, DPCs, gages, gage blocks, and more.
- Calibration Supplies – A variety of companies provide supplies that include labels, certificates, documentation, and more.
- Calibration Training – There are companies that offer calibration-training services for general calibration techniques, calibration management, quality standards, and other calibration-related areas.
- Calibration Consulting – There are companies that offer consulting services in the different areas of the calibration field.
Calibration Requirements
Before choosing a calibration service, an organization should clearly define its calibration needs, including:
- Industry quality standards and requirements – These are dictated by customers and regulatory bodies. (Industry resource pages provide the latest information on calibration relating to the FDA-regulated industries, ISO/EC 17025 standard and ASQ's Certified Calibration Technician (CCT) program.)
- Organizational requirements – It is important to determine the company's overall calibration requirements.
- Department-specific requirements – It is also essential to discern the calibration needs of each individual department. (e.g. a shorter calibration turnaround might be required for a production line running 24-hours a day than for an engineering department that uses its equipment less frequently.)
Factors to Consider When Selecting A Calibration Service
When selecting a calibration service, an employer should consider the following factors:
- Quality of system
- Technical competence
- Automated calibration procedures
- Service delivery methods
- Record access
- Turnaround time
Calibration Fields
Calibration equipment helps an organization catch defects, so it is important that equipment be both well maintained and precise. Whether an organization needs to meet industry-standard requirements for calibration control or to ensure that its testing equipment is functioning properly, there are companies that provide calibration services in a number of areas. Some common fields of metrology include: acoustical, density, dimensional, electrical power, electrical standards, flow, frequency and time, ionizing radiation, mass, optics, phototonic, photometry, pressure, radiometry, and thermometry.
By Heather Brunson
