I am trying to determine the best way to communicate a concern with our testing facilities.
We have a "control sample" or "golden part" representative of the material we are producing and a calibration standard.
The settings to run the machine are different for the calibration standard (spherical steel ball) and the control sample (sample of powder).
Facility 1: “We saw that there was a drift in the measurement of the control sample over time. At the same time checking the calibration standard showed no drift. “ So they stopped doing the weekly test with the control sample and only use the calibration standard. They say they have no issues with consistency or with contamination from our material of the unit. They say the do not need to re-calibrate.
Facility 2: uses the control sample weekly and has to re-calibrate the unit about monthly. They also see degradation in the measurement from the unit over time (the unit does repeat tests as part of the run and reports standard deviation which broadens over time) due to contamination and about quarterly have to service the unit for that reason. They also test with the calibration standard if they find there is an issue.
One of the issues for me in resolving this is I have not seen the data from either facility on either the calibration standard or control sample results over time.
However, I believe the "drift" comment is exactly why you have a control sample (golden part) using the material you are trying to test. This is also why you should be calibrating the unit to adjust to prevent drift on the material you are trying to test. The calibration standard says the machine is working as expected, the control sample says the process to test is working as expected.
What would be your approach to this?
I really appreciate any feedback on this to help my understanding and to ensure the facilities are consistent and appropriate in their practice.
We have a "control sample" or "golden part" representative of the material we are producing and a calibration standard.
The settings to run the machine are different for the calibration standard (spherical steel ball) and the control sample (sample of powder).
Facility 1: “We saw that there was a drift in the measurement of the control sample over time. At the same time checking the calibration standard showed no drift. “ So they stopped doing the weekly test with the control sample and only use the calibration standard. They say they have no issues with consistency or with contamination from our material of the unit. They say the do not need to re-calibrate.
Facility 2: uses the control sample weekly and has to re-calibrate the unit about monthly. They also see degradation in the measurement from the unit over time (the unit does repeat tests as part of the run and reports standard deviation which broadens over time) due to contamination and about quarterly have to service the unit for that reason. They also test with the calibration standard if they find there is an issue.
One of the issues for me in resolving this is I have not seen the data from either facility on either the calibration standard or control sample results over time.
However, I believe the "drift" comment is exactly why you have a control sample (golden part) using the material you are trying to test. This is also why you should be calibrating the unit to adjust to prevent drift on the material you are trying to test. The calibration standard says the machine is working as expected, the control sample says the process to test is working as expected.
What would be your approach to this?
I really appreciate any feedback on this to help my understanding and to ensure the facilities are consistent and appropriate in their practice.