To Calibrate or not to calibrate electronics rack components

[jamestone16]

Company X develops and integrates its own test racks to perform acceptance testing on its products.

The rack has a certification procedure for the rack that must be passed and signed off by QA before being used.

The rack has many electronic components, from power supplies to o-scopes, monitors, probes, function generators, multiplexers, you name it.

All of these components /can/ be calibrated, but I'm not sure that all of them are required to be calibrated per ISO 9001/AS9100.

For example, if the rack has a power supply (PS) that is needed for the test, but the PS is not being used as a measurement device (for product conformity), does it have to be calibrated? Can it be marked "Cal not required"

 

[Sidney Vianna]

For example, if the rack has a power supply (PS) that is needed for the test, but the PS is not being used as a measurement device (for product conformity), does it have to be calibrated?

No, it does not.

Can it be marked "Cal not required"

You don't have to identify anything that does not need calibration with a sticker like that, but if it makes people more "comfortable" that an assessment has been made about the need for calibration, then, why not?

 

[jamestone16]

Thanks for the response. The reason for the Cal not required sticker is to confirm that someone has made a deliberate decision to not calibrate the item. Because the item comes calibrated from the OEM, I think there has been a tendency to continue calibrating just because "it's a calibrated item."

 

[howste]

If the power supply is required to supply a certain voltage for proper testing then you still should consider calibrating it. Either that or you should verify the power supply's output at the time of use.

 

[SpinDr99]

A safe question to ask, is "Does it affect product Quality?" and that will give you your answer.

 

[normzone]

A safe question to ask, is "Does it affect product Quality?" and that will give you your answer.

Another way to put it is " If decisions were made based on that devices indicated reading, and the reading was incorrect, would it make somebody unhappy? "