Calibration of Instrument before being Discarded

[chris1price]

Hi, when in instrument that is usually calibrated is no longer required, should it be sent for calibration before being discarded to ensure it has been peforming correctly since the previous calibration?

Chris

 

[Ninja]

My two cents,
That would be a waste of money.

If there is concern regarding measurement drift or reliability for its last use, I would simply remeasure an old "known" part, or cross compare with a similar calibrated gage I had to validate the last measurement before discard.

I would have a really hard road trying to convince people to pay to make sure the trash was functioning properly before we pitched it.

FWIW, your concern about "closing it out" is a good one...just find a cheaper and simpler way to do it.

 

[PaulJSmith]

I agree with Ninja. It's good that you are thinking about this, but don't throw away money. A simple on-site verification (recorded, of course) should be enough to alleviate any concerns should they arise.

Great question.

 

[chris1price]

Hi guys, thanks for the sanity check. In 25 years as a QM I have never done this. However, I recently saw an auditor in the pharma business make a non-conformance out of it!

 

[BradM]

Absolutely it must be verified prior to disposal.

Otherwise, that device could have impacted everything it was used with. What about if that device has a lot of error? How are you going to know??

If that device was assessed and was important enough to be calibrated, it's final impact (if any) needs to be assessed.

If it hasn't been used since its last calibration, then it's a no brainer. Stated different, if you can justify why a final calibration is not needed (no impact) then You're OK.

I have seen instruments disposed; then they started seeing some process issues and customer complaints. Since a final check was done on the disposed instrument, we knew it wasn't the issue. If we hadn't done that, there is no was we could rule that instrument out.

Calibration is about confidence; you need confidence all the measurement done with it are valid.

 

[Ninja]

Absolutely it must be verified prior to disposal.

...based on the assessment of risk...

And verified...not calibrated as originally asked. Agreed.

 

[BradM]

...based on the assessment of risk...

And verified...not calibrated as originally asked. Agreed.

If there exist suitable methods for verification. I would say probably not; as it was being sent out for calibration in the first place.

To me, it really depends on the usage, criticality, impact, accuracy required, etc.

 

[Ajit Basrur]

Great points

 

[Ninja]

Likely falls into the age old semantics of Calibration vs. Verification.

The point is to know if your last measurement before discard is reliable (and thus the ones before that too)...not to have the equipment "adjusted" so that the next measurement is reliable...being that there is no next measurement.

To me that's verification...and if I can do that in-house fast and cheap to give me the confidence I'll need to trust the last usage data, I'm all good.

We're saying the same thing, I figure...

 

[BradM]

Likely falls into the age old semantics of Calibration vs. Verification.

The point is to know if your last measurement before discard is reliable (and thus the ones before that too)...not to have the equipment "adjusted" so that the next measurement is reliable...being that there is no next measurement.

To me that's verification...and if I can do that in-house fast and cheap to give me the confidence I'll need to trust the last usage data, I'm all good.

We're saying the same thing, I figure...

Oh... OK!! Yes! I can totally agree with this. And I agree!