Tip for you Save money, calibrate only what is needed WITHOUT violating ISO9001!

Most companies incur a lot more money on calibration than required because they calibrate measuring equipment that are: a) NOT required by the laws of nature, or b) NOT required by ISO9001 and c) When required, they over kill! Here are 5 typical situations I come across during my audits:

1.

NOT required by the laws of nature: calibrating equipment whose property (and hence accuracy) will not change e.g. standard gage sets and dead weights. Both have NO moving parts, will not wear with time and unless they are chipped or deformed deliberately, they will give the same readings for the next 1,000 years! NOT required by ISO9001: calibrating all monitoring and measuring equipment when you need only calibrate those needed to provide evidence of conformity of product to determined requirements. E.g. In ship repair, you need to prove that the renewed plates and pipes are of the required grade and thickness, that there are no weld defects and that there is no leak. Dimensions are important but accuracy is NOT important. Hence, there is no need to calibrate your measuring tapes and protractors. In machinery repair, you need to prove that the functions of a repaired pump are restored, there is no leak, and there is no excessive vibration, unusual noise and heat. You do NOT need to calibrate the discharge pressure gage, venier used to measure the dimensions of the new shaft, balancing machine used to balance the rotor blades and the multi-meter used to confirm that the insulation of the renewed motor windings UNLESS restoration to a discharge pressure, vibration and quality of insulation were specified as customer requirements.

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Examples of over-kill:

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You may be calibrating equipment that need only be checked. E.g. steel measuring tapes/rulers and glass thermometers. Will a measuring tape become longer with time and/or frequent use? Not that I know off! It will become shorter if there is a kink (if it got twisted and bent) in the tape. You should of course check its condition before use and replace it if damaged or if the markings defaced! A glass thermometer will give consistent readings from the day it was made unless the glass ware is damaged! If you suspect that it is giving you inaccurate readings, you can do a quick verification stick it in ice, your mouth and in boiling water. It should read 0, 37 and 100 centigrade degrees respectively. If not, its time to throw that thermometer into your trash bin! You may be calibrating equipment used as indicators. E.g. A multi-meter that is used to find out whether a circuit is open or closed. You only need to check whether that the multi-meter is functioning correctly i.e. will show zero ohms when the terminals are shorted. Note that you need to check only prior to use and not periodically. You may be calibrating more often than needed. Most do it annually. Why not weekly, monthly or every 3 years? Remember that we should calibrate measuring equipment when its accuracy is suspect. Thus the frequency of calibration should be linked to how likely the equipment will lose its accuracy. It will if it has moving parts that wear, stick, rust, deform or deteriorate AND if it is mishandled. I have seen micrometers being used by workers with greasy fingers and who threw (instead of placed) them after use and onto hard dirty surface. Thus if your micrometer is used every day and in a hostile environment, you may have to calibrate it weekly. On the other hand, if the micrometer is used once a month and

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is treated with tender loving care and stored in a clean and dry (need not be cool) place, then you may need to calibrate it once every 3 years or longer! One objective way to justify your decision to extend the calibration period is this. Compare the latest calibrated results with the previous calibration results. If the readings are almost similar and within the accuracy of your application (see next example), then you know that the accuracy of your equipment has not changed significantly (we call this drift). You can double your calibration period. You should challenge your auditor if he does not accept your justification!

6.

You may have specified the accuracy requirement as to manufacturers standard. Its like servicing your car every 5,000 km as recommended by the car maker. You certainly need NOT if your car is driven in clean Singapore (I do mine only after 20,000 km or when the engine oil is dirty). You certainly should service it more often if you drive your car in sandy Saudi Arabia. Calibrating to a higher accuracy attracts higher costs because more accurate and expensive equipment would be needed to calibrate your equipment. The accuracy to which your equipment is to be calibrated should be related to your application. E.g. your pressure gage is used to set the lifting pressure of relief valves. If the typical relief pressure is 100 bars +/- 5 bars, then +/- bars will be the accuracy required. If you follow the makers standard, it will probably be +/-0.5 bar (i.e. 10 times more accurate than needed). You may be sending your equipment for external calibration when you could calibrate it yourself in-house. For the above pressure gage example, get a pressure gage that has a range of up to 200 bars and one that can read down to 0.5 bars i.e. one that has a large face! This gage shall be called the master and should be externally calibrated. (Caution: Make sure that the calibration certificate issued indicates that the calibration equipment used could be traced to international or national measurement standards . Frequency of calibration to be dependent on how often you use it to calibrate your other pressure gages.) You can then calibrate your pressure gage by comparing readings with the master gage for the same applied pressure. You should apply pressure increasingly in steps of 20 bars and then decreasingly. You must record the results which will serve as your calibration record. You may have inadvertently thrown away equipment whose required accuracy limits were violated BUT for measurements OUTSIDE your measuring range. E.g. If your pressure gage has a range from 0 1,000 bars AND you require to use it to measure pressures typically between 200 300 bars, then that gage need to be accurate between 200 300 bars. If the gage is NOT accurate for measurements between 0 - 200 bars and 300 1,000 bars, it does not matter! You should of course stick a note on the gage to alert users that gage is accurate from 200 300 bars only.

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If you still got doubts about calibration; pose your questions to chenghuangleng@gmail.com. I will respond, though not always immediately. My answers will be FREE.

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