Ignoring portions of GGG-P-463c is "globally" practiced?

[fallon]

Good afternoon all,
A while back I was involved in a calibration audit at my facility which turned up a number of surface plates which were not installed as per specifications given in GGG-P-463c. Some plates were placed in homemade tables at convenient heights but without the three point support system supplied by the manufacturer. Other plates had suffered serious impacts as evidenced by the chuncks missing from the top edges as well as the bottom. I identified the plates in question and catagorized them according to the Visual Examination chart given in 4.4.1 of the GGG-P-463c. Some of the plates were still being carried as Grade AA with chucks taken out of them. The response to my findings from the company's Quality Manager was that the certifying company told him globally accepted practice was to just check the surface and replace the certification stickers. The certifier also made the comment that the GGG-P-463c was antiquated. To my knowledge, this is the foremost standard used in industry today. Is it in fact "globally" practiced out there to just bypass the visual inspection portion of GGG-P-463c and recertify the surface? Has anyone run into this before? If so, was anything done to remedy the situation? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Fallon

 

[Jim Wynne]

A while back I was involved in a calibration audit at my facility which turned up a number of surface plates which were not installed as per specifications given in GGG-P-463c.

More info, please: Where is GGG-P-463c specified? Do you have some sort of document that requires adherence to that standard? If not, why are you citing it in an audit? If so, why does the QM have a problem adhering to it?

 

[fallon]

While performing the Calibration Audit, the certifier's certification paperwork cited GGG-P-463c as the standard which the surface plates were certified to. When I actually looked at GGG-P-463c, I noted the defects with the surface plates accordingly. Being an audit, the paperwork has to match the physical standards given. If one was to put a sign up saying they were "ISO XXXX Certified", you walked in to find that they weren't, you'd have to seriously question anything they said about their quality program. These are all Government contracts with higher quality standards called out. What I'm trying to figure out is how much of this the contractor is/was aware of and how much is attributed to the certifier of these plates.

 

[Jim Wynne]

While performing the Calibration Audit, the certifier's certification paperwork cited GGG-P-463c as the standard which the surface plates were certified to. When I actually looked at GGG-P-463c, I noted the defects with the surface plates accordingly. Being an audit, the paperwork has to match the physical standards given. If one was to put a sign up saying they were "ISO XXXX Certified", you walked in to find that they weren't, you'd have to seriously question anything they said about their quality program. These are all Government contracts with higher quality standards called out. What I'm trying to figure out is how much of this the contractor is/was aware of and how much is attributed to the certifier of these plates.

If the calibration source is certifying to the cited standard, and the work appears to contradict that, then you certainly have an issue with the supplier. It doesn't matter if the standard is generally recognized as current in the industry. If the supplier cites it as his governing standard, then it's the bible for any calibrations he certifies when citing it. If you're concerned that the standard is outdated, that's another issue to take up with the supplier.

 

[gaugefixer]

surface plate standards

In my past experience with ISO 17025 certified calibration labs doing surface plates; the better ones will note on the cert that there is a crack in the plate or a chunk out of it. If a plate is found to be improperly mounted (missing the rubber pads or pads in the wrong place) they will issue an inspection certificate only but not a calibration certificate.
There have been a few fly by nighters that won't mention cracks or the mounting of a plate, but you get what you pay for.
As far as I know, the Federal spec is still valid; though there might be another revision or something a little different.