Traceability of Standards - Where can I send my standards to be calibrated?

V

Van_H

#1
Im beginning with the project of certifying our Q.A. Lab on 17025, but i have a doubt, if i get the acreditation, where can i send my standards to be calibrated, do they have to be calibrated with the national Standard or can i just send it to another credited lab?

Any comments are welcome.

:thanx:
 
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SteelMaiden

Super Moderator
Super Moderator
#2
Re: Traceability of standards

Where you send them is partially up to you, but they will have to be calibrated using the appropriate specifications with traceability to NIST or other applicable standard.

Hopefully, I am using the correct language....Calibration is not my primary area of expertise. Just enough knowledge to be dangerous. There are several members here who are truly experts, I'm sure they will correct any misrepresentations I have made.
 
B

Boscoeee

#3
Re: Traceability of standards

Are you setting up a Metrology lab or a Quality Control Lab? Specifically are you setting up to perform your own calibrations?
 
V

Van_H

#4
Re: Traceability of standards

Its a Quality lab and im setting it up to perform my own calibrations
 
B

Boscoeee

#5
Re: Traceability of standards

That equate to a Metrology laboratory. I will have to defer to others that more qualified regarding the Standard you referenced. However, as a minimum your master standards have to be traceable to either NIST or other Recognized sources. May I ask why you are in sourcing this activity?
 
D

D.Scott

#6
Re: Traceability of standards

Its a Quality lab and im setting it up to perform my own calibrations
Welcome to the Cove.

The information you have been given is very good but do you realize that you don't need lab accreditation to calibrate your own equipment? You will need to have calibrations done by qualified employees and you will need traceability to NIST or equivalent but you would not necessarily need certification.

Dave
 
V

Van_H

#7
Re: Traceability of standards

:D Yeah i realize thet, but we want the accreditation to improve our current methods, and to offer our buyers an extra security of our products and methods. BTW We are already certified under ISO 9001:2000 so we already have a lot of documentation, tracking software and master standards with traceability to nationals, so basically we're only missing the accreditation and certified technicians.
 

BradM

Staff member
Admin
#8
Re: Traceability of standards

Im beginning with the project of certifying our Q.A. Lab on 17025, but i have a doubt, if i get the acreditation, where can i send my standards to be calibrated, do they have to be calibrated with the national Standard or can i just send it to another credited lab?

Any comments are welcome.
I too, am not a 17025 expert, but I will take a stab. You will need to send your standards to a competent lab for calibration. Whether you send them to a competent lab or a national standard will largely depend on the type of equipment, the availability of labs to perform that particular service, and your budget. NIST has a pretty long lead time, requiring multiple redundant standards. To answer your question, the level of scrutiny you choose in calibrating your standards will increase.

Look at it this way- it becomes a Supply Chain. You can spend all day taking care of your own shop, but if you don't exercise some level of control on the incoming raw material/product, you're spinning your wheels. Plus, if you use competent sources, they will provide uncertainty calculations that can be of assistance to you.
 
J

jfgunn

#9
The answer to your question would depend upon the accrediting body you choose to use for your ISO 17025 accreditation. In general, you should choose an accreding body that is accepted worldwide. Based upon your profile, it would appear you are in a city in Mexico very close to the border of Texas.

Go to the following website: http://www.ilac.org/documents/mra_signatories.pdf

This lists a group of accrediting bodies that all recognize each other worldwide. There are 5 accrediting bodies in the US and 1 in Mexico on this list. First of all, you should contact several of them (if not all) to get information on obtaining accreditation and compare them before choosing one to use for accreditation.

The simple answer to your question is that you need to use a calibration laboratory that is accredited by one of the organizations on this list. Make sure that the calibration laboratory has the measurement you need on their scope of accreditation. For virtually every parameter, there are several (or many) labs that will be accredited to calibrate your standards. Each laboratory will have a different uncertainty for their calibration. You need to choose the lab whose uncertainty is sufficient for your needs.

Of course, you can also send your standards directly to the national measurement institute directly. In the US, this would be NIST. NIST has signed a mutual recognition agreement with countries around the world, so you could also send your standards directly to those national measurment institues. A list of these is at
http://www.bipm.org/en/cipm-mra/participation/signatories.html

Sending your standards directly to NIST (or similar) gets you a lower uncertainty on the calibration. Calibration by NIST is very time consuming (months) and extremely expensive. The lower uncertainty you get will be statistically insignificant for routine calibration work.

For example, if you send gage blocks to NIST, the uncertainty might be 1 microinch. If you send them to Starret, you might get 2 microinches. If you send them to any number of accredited labs, you would get between 4 and 8 microinches. When you use the gage blocks to calibrate a micrometer with 0.0001 inches, the uncertaty from that calibration is roughly 58 microinches regardless of where you sent the standard.

I hope this helps a little.
 

Hershal

Metrologist-Auditor
Staff member
Super Moderator
#10
Van_H, I support what jfgunn stated. If in fact you are in Mexico, then your National Measurement Institute is CENAM, and that is where your traceability should route to if possible, and ultimately back to SI Units.

If you are in a different country than Mexico, then go to

http://www.bipm.org/en/cipm-mra/signatories.html

and find the National Measurement Institute for your country.

I also generally suggest not calibrating anything inside uless you have the demonstratable technical proficiency. I recommend finding an accredited calibration provider for your calibration needs.

Hope this helps.
 
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