Laboratory Environment Monitoring - Are there any "universally accepted" conditions?

[Doug Lemon]

We are currently preparing for our QS 9000 Audit and are struggling a bit with the new Lab Requirements (4.10.6).

Are there any "universally accepted" conditions that we should be striving to maintain? If not ... should we set our own? ie: Temperature & Humidity.

We are currently monitoring and logging both of these in our lab but are a little leary of setting a limit for ourselves ie: 68°F ± 2°(Auditor Ammo).

We are a machine shop and are often measuring to within .0001". Any feedback you have would be most appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Batman]

If your measurements are affected by temperature changes, meaning accepting rejectable product or vice versa, you have to control the environment.

Our product is stable relative to the tolerances and amount of temperature changes and humidity changes experienced in our neck of the woods. For the general procedures, we state that all parts to be checked will be acclimated to the local conditions, and measurement devices will be calibrated or standardized prior to measurement if not residing in the environment.

A specific example of a measurement device not appropriate to the general statement is our CMM. We state "office comfortable" conditions and in the event more than 6 degrees difference we recalibrate. This is within our abilities with no real difficulties or hardships and the auditors were happy.

We also work with .0001 measurement devices, but or print and tool drawing tolerances are for the most part no less than .001". So we have little concerns here.

 

[Lassitude]

You could use something along the line of 60 to 80 degrees F and 30 to 60% RH.

 

[Mike525]

Check with NIST and ASTM - they might have standards or guidelines for lab environments. Also, if your customer is doing any receiving inspection, you'll want to make sure you're both testing under the same conditions / environment.