Calibration - What do we need to calibrate and what don't we need to calibrate?

[Dan De Yarman]

Calibration

The company I work for is going for registration by the end of March 2000. I was wondering if anybody can help me with some questions about calibration. What do we need to calibrate and what don't we need to calibrate? I talked to our consultant today and we came to the conclusion that we didn't need to calibrate our machine shop. This was because our product is the machine not the details that are being machined. I brought up to him that no matter whether the detail is machined correctly or not, it still may or may not work in the machine, thus rework. I told him this is why the TE Supplement doesn't require us to track rework. Then I talked with someone else I work with. He said "How can you build quality machinery without quality parts?" Our machinists inspect their own parts, it is just their inspection equipment wouldn't be calibrated. He has a point that I agree with, I just don't know how to address this issue. Someone please help. By the way is there a way to get around calibrating tape measures?

Dan

 

[Tom Goetzinger]

You only need calibrate those IMTE devices which are used by you "to demonstrate the conformance of your product to the specified requirements". In our environment, the fabricated parts (mostly brackets and such) do not affect final product quality. The electronic testing devices we use to perform final product checks do. Because of that, the electronic testing devices are calibrated and the gauges used in the machine shop are not. Unless tape measures are used to determine final product quality, you should not need to calibrate them. Just be prepared to justify your decisions to your registrar and to show evidence that you have thought about it and decided what to calibrate and what not to calibrate.
If you like, I think I have a bunch of information from another forum that I could email you.
Good luck with your project.

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Tom Goetzinger

 

[Dan De Yarman]

Tom, that would be fine with me. Thank you for your advice. My e-mail address is ddeyarman@acro.com.

Has anyone else heard of a solution similar to the one I mentioned previously? Anything would be useful.

Thanks,

Dan

 

[Dan De Yarman]

I would like to know what my options are for IMTE which probably won't pass calibration, but want to be retained for reference purposes. Do we put them in a quarantine area separate from our inspection department, just lock them up, label them, or all of the above?

Dan

 

[Marc]

You don't have to segregate it - you have to mark it appropriately such as "For Reference Only". It still has to be in your system, however.