Hi all,
In this blog post we’ll continue to talk about another fundamental topic:
Why should you calibrate?
It is good to remember the old rule: “All measurement devices measure wrong, and calibration tells how wrong they are.”
All measurement devices tend to drift over time, they lose their accuracy unless calibrated at certain intervals. Of course more modern instruments drift less than old-fashioned ones.
In many industries you need to comply with regulations that require you to calibrate at certain intervals. These regulations include ISO9000, ISO14000, FDA regulations and many more.
A process plant takes in raw material and converts it to finished products, trying to do it as effectively as possible. Keeping all the critical process measurements accurate with regular calibrations helps to keep the plants working more effectively and produce more output and money.
Money is an important reason for many things, also for calibration. When the money transfer or invoicing is based on measurements, it is clear that the more accurate the measurements are, the more accurate the money transfer is.
One very important motive for calibrating is safety. This includes employee safety at the plant, ensuring that the plant is a safe place to work. It also includes customer safety, for example in the food and pharmaceutical industry.
The environment is also something we all should take good care of. The various emissions of an industrial plant are measured with measurement devices, and keeping these accurate with regular calibrations helps to keep the environment clean.
This was a short summary on the reasons why to calibrate. Beamex can offer more detailed information if you are interested. Feel free to comment below if you have questions or comments.
We have also written two blog posts on our experiences of what calibration actually is and how often instruments should be calibrated, click on the links to read them.
Write to you soon,
Heikki
Heikki Laurila is Product Marketing Manager at Beamex Oy Ab. He started working for Beamex in 1988 and has, during his years at Beamex, worked in production, the service department, the calibration laboratory, as quality manager and as product manager. Heikki has a Bachelor's degree in Science.
Heikkis family consists of himself, his wife and their four children. In his spare time he enjoys playing the guitar.
Do you know the costs and risks of not calibrating?
We do and we have written a white paper about it, read it now!
Also, please check out the article What is calibration on our web site.