Calibration Services From Signatrol UK

Calibration Services From Signatrol Ltd

Why Calibrate?
Calibration is an essential part of any quality control system, You may have the best records in the world, but if the equipment used to record those values is not accurate, then the record is meaningless.

All quality systems, such as ISO 9001:2000, require that all measurement equipment used to verify or control quality must be regularly calibrated, and all such calibrations are required to be traceable to national or international standards (ISO 9001 2000 section 7.6). Records of calibrations are required to be kept and corrective action taken when measurement equipment is found to be out of specification.
All such equipment must be calibrated either
• at regular intervals
• or prior to use

In either case the basis of calibration must be traceable back to an approved laboratory.

Test equipment must then be:
• adjusted as necessary
• identified as being in date
• tamper protected

Calibration Interval
How often do I need to calibrate? This is a question often asked and it depends upon a number of factors:
• The quality and stability of the measuring equipment
• The initial accuracy specification
• The importance of the absolute measurement accuracy.
• Whether there is a secondary back-up device
• Manufacturers recommendations

Calibration intervals are therefore established to ensure that test and measuring equipment are functioning within expected tolerance limits at time of use. Implicit in the application of calibration intervals is the understanding that the calibration values may change over time and will require periodic recalibration to be maintained within acceptable limits.

The calibration interval will therefore be decided by the Calibration Manager taking all these factors into account. Often they will rely on the manufacturer recommendations as they know their product the best and will have conducted tests at the design stage. Alternatively the Calibration Manager may choose to build up a calibration model by checking the calibrations at short intervals ( Say 3 months) and recording the amount the parameter has drifted since the last calibration. In this way a model can be created which defines the maximum period between calibrations.

By optimising calibration intervals, unnecessary calibrations can be minimized, thereby reducing costs. Moreover, optimising intervals will improve compliance with regulatory directives while ensuring maximum compliance with reliability targets.

Managing Calibrations
Calibration managers are faced with increasing pressures to minimize costs while improving compliance with their chosen standard whilst improving the reliability of measurement and test equipment.

The Calibration manager must therefore ensure that:
• Each piece of equipment is calibrated at this interval.
• Each piece of equipment is marked with an appropriate label containing a unique reference number, the calibration date and the date the next calibration will be required.
• The calibrations are inviolate and cannot be altered by unauthorised personnel.
• A record of the calibration is maintained and retained for historical purposes

Do I need a Calibration Certificate with a new product?
This is a question that is often asked and there is no right or wrong answer. When a product is new it has almost certainly been calibrated at the manufacturers with certified calibration equipment and it is therefore probable that the equipment meets its published specifications. Many customers ask for a Certificate of Conformity to confirm its compliance and deem that satisfactory for the initial calibration interval. In critical applications however, some companies require that there is always a valid calibration certificate and ask for that as an additional safeguard.

How can Signatrol Help?
All Signatrol data loggers have a calibration date reminder function so that the customer does not need to operate a separate re-calibration reminder system. The interval is set by default to 12 months but can be set to other periods by an authorised person. When the calibration is due a reminder is shown on the screen. This reminder is factory reset at the time of calibration.

Signatrol offers a fast turn-around on temperature and relative humidity calibrations for our own data loggers and also for other data loggers or handheld thermometers. In the case of our own products, the internal calibration date is reset.

Our temperature and process signal calibration facilities are traceable UKAS whilst our humidity calibration facilities are tracable to the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and each piece of equipment calibrated is issued with an individual calibration certificate which is retained for a minimum period of 10 years should the original be lost and replacement copies required. Our certificates are always available for download in PDF format - see below...

View Certificates Of Our Calibration Equipment

Click on the certificate number to view the PDF of the relevant certificate:

Instrument Certificate Valid From Valid To

Agilent 34401A Digital Multimeter 17002/R 3rd November 2009 3rd November 2010

Eurotron Calibrator 180909-N9 18th September 2009 18th September 2010

Gallenkamp Thermometer R34018T 9th October 2008 9th October 2009

Gallenkamp Thermometer U38377T 12th October 2009 12th October 2010

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Registered Office: Signatrol Ltd, 105 Church Street, Tewkesbury, Glos, GL20 5AB, United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 (0)1684 299 399 Fax: +44 (0)1684 299 375 Email: sales@signatrol.com Web: www.signatrol.com Company Registration Number: 04973283