How Often Should Your Equipment be Calibrated?

Calibrating equipment, in whatever field it may be, is crucial in ensuring that measurement instruments are accurate and reliable. The process involves adjusting and testing equipment to meet the required standard.

Importance of Calibration

Businesses must maintain the quality and safety of their products by ensuring that the equipment used provides accurate and reliable measurements. Inaccurate results may lead to costly errors, product defects, or health hazards.

Aside from that, the process of calibration helps to identify faults before they can result in significant issues. Regularly doing this can identify problems such as minor and major damages, wear and tear, and drift.

To maintain working equipment that always performs with accuracy, frequent calibration from an accredited calibration service provider is necessary. But the question is, how often should it be done?

How Frequent Should Equipment Be Calibrated

There is no one answer to how often calibration should be. Several factors should be taken into consideration. These include manufacturer’s recommendations, frequency of use, operating equipment, industry regulations, and periodical calibration.

1. Manufacturer’s recommendations

Guidelines are provided by manufacturers on how often instruments should be calibrated. The recommendations are based on the equipment’s expected lifespan, environment it operates in, and its complexity. These are usually included in the equipment manual, and are highly recommended to be followed to maintain the accuracy and quality of the equipment.

2. Frequency of use

Another big factor is how frequent the equipment is used. Overtime, an instrument experienced wear and tear, leading to inaccurate measurements. The frequency of use, therefore, also determines how often an equipment should be calibrated. If it is continuously used for an extended period of time, it is recommended to calibrate more often than usual.

3. Operating environment

Operating environment contributes when deciding how often a calibration service should be done. Some fields use equipment in harsh environments that have extreme temperatures or high humidity, this will require more maintenance including calibration to ensure that the measurements are still accurate.

Another example is equipment used in dusty or dirty areas, they may require frequent calibration too. Debris accumulate overtime and they affect the instrument’s accuracy.

4. Industry regulations

Some Industries have regulatory bodies that mandate the frequency of equipment calibration. For instance, the medical sector demands that particular devices, such blood pressure monitors and ECG equipment, be calibrated on a regular basis to assure correct data.

5. Periodical

Periodical calibration refers to the routine set at fixed intervals. It is a proactive initiative done to ensure that the equipment is functioning correctly and accurately. This is also a good approach because it helps prevent problems. Periodical calibration could be monthly, quarterly, annually or semi-annually, but other factors still play into the decision making of setting the timeline.

Immediate Calibration

Despite the factors listed above about how to identify when to calibrate equipment. There are still instances that require urgent calibration. Here are some of those situations:

1. Equipment failure

In order to prevent additional damage and to assure accurate and dependable readings, it is crucial to calibrate the equipment as soon as it fails or exhibits symptoms of malfunction.

2. Out-of-tolerance readings

Immediate calibration is required to restore accuracy once readings produced are out of the tolerance range.

3. New Equipment

It is crucial to calibrate any new equipment that is installed or introduced into the workplace right once to make sure it is operating properly and providing precise readings.

4. Changes in environment

This refers to the changes in temperature, humidity, or pressure. All of these can impact the function of the equipment.

5. Safety Concerns

It is crucial to calibrate equipment often and immediately if it exhibits symptoms of failure since erroneous measurements might have detrimental effects on safety-critical applications, such as those in the healthcare or aerospace sectors.

In conclusion, equipment calibration is a crucial step in ensuring the precision and dependability of measuring devices. Deciding on its frequency is based on many factors such as recommendation of manufacturer, usage, working environment, industry regulations and if there’s a preferred periodical schedule. However, take into consideration too if the equipment is in need of an immediate calibration.

 

A calibration service provider’s expertise is essential in making sure that equipment is operating within the required accuracy range and minimizing the possibility of mistakes and false readings. Numerous advantages result from routine calibration, including increased measurement accuracy and dependability, longer equipment life, lower costs and downtime, and compliance with industry standards and regulations. Organizations may make sure that their equipment is precise and dependable by adopting and following a calibration program, which will boost production, profitability, and safety.

For years, Micro Precision has been considered as one of the experts in the calibration industry. If you need a dependable calibration service provider, you can inquire or request a quotation.