What is Calibration?

THE IMPORTANCE OF CALIBRATION

If you use measuring devices at your company, you likely want them to be as accurate as possible. Unfortunately, any measuring instrument will experience wear over time, affecting its precision. Though devices will age, you can calibrate them to improve their accuracy and ensure you always have reliable results. Since calibration is crucial for consistency, you’ll probably want to know more about what it is.

Why calibrate equipment? Read on to learn the answer to this question and more.

What Is Calibration?
Calibration refers to the process of standardizing or adjusting measuring equipment to help it deliver more precise results. During calibration, a technician will measure a piece of equipment versus a baseline to see if they match. If the equipment’s measurement doesn’t meet an acceptable accuracy ratio set by the standard, a trained tech will make adjustments until it does.

Various instruments will need different calibration processes. For example, a calibration lab will calibrate sensors differently than thermometers. You can often hire experts to come to your facility to calibrate your equipment, or you can send the equipment off to a lab for calibration.

Why Do We Need to Calibrate Equipment?
Over time, any measuring device’s accuracy will begin to decline. Usually, this decreased accuracy is due to standard wear on various components, but it can also occur due to a harmful environment or mechanical or electric shocks. The rate at which measuring equipment will lessen can vary based on its surroundings and type.

Due to this reduction in measuring accuracy, organizations with measuring equipment prioritize regular calibration. By calibrating your equipment, you ensure it has the precision required to complete tasks correctly. Calibrating measuring devices also ensures you maintain a high level of product quality.

The reasoning behind equipment calibration boils down to reliability. When you regularly calibrate your instruments, you know your measuring device is accurate and will give your team readings in line with your other measuring devices. If you want precision and consistency from measuring instruments, calibration is a must.

4 Reasons We Need Calibration
When a company calibrates its equipment, it can receive several benefits. Some of these advantages include longer instrument life, increased safety, more significant savings and straightforward certifications. At Gulf Coast Calibration, we calibrate our clients’ equipment to ensure they receive these benefits and always have accurate measuring devices.

Learn more about the top four reasons we calibrate equipment below.

1. Longer Instrument Life
Any measuring device will wear down over time. Instead of throwing out your device and replacing it with a new one once it stops providing accurate measurements, you can calibrate it to get it back to normal levels. After you calibrate your old equipment, it should perform at its original standard. As a result, you can keep using a device for a lot longer.

Calibration can also help you pay attention to how fast a piece of equipment degrades, helping you keep an eye on factors — such as environmental pressures or particular applications — that lead to more wear. With this information, you can make adjustments to prevent faster wear and keep your instruments in better condition longer.

2. Increased Safety
When you use calibration equipment for essential processes, safety is paramount. Even minor inaccuracies could cause a machine to work incorrectly or give you false information about how safe something is, leading to injuries to your staff or machinery breaking down. Regularly calibrating your equipment allows you to have accurate measurements and avoid unsafe situations.

Since calibration increases safety, many industries use it to keep their assets and staff protected. Some of the most common industries using calibration to improve their safety include the following.

Medical: The medical sector produces life-improving and lifesaving devices and instruments. For these devices to be safe to use, they often have to be highly accurate. For example, millions of people use pacemakers globally, and these devices require precise measurements before surgeons place them inside a patient. Since pacemakers and many other medical devices need to be highly accurate, proper calibration and exact measurements are essential for patient safety.
Manufacturing: Manufacturing companies use equipment requiring calibration across many different points in their production processes. Calibration is essential, since it ensures measuring equipment sends accurate information to crucial systems and alarms. When a manufacturer consistently calibrates their equipment, they can keep their employees safer, as improper calibration could lead to machinery not working properly, potentially resulting in injury and death.
Food: Companies in the food industry, such as commercial kitchens or caterers, use thermometers to assess food temperatures. When a company calibrates its thermometers regularly, it can avoid food safety issues due to incorrectly measured temperatures. Correctly measured temperatures also help those in the food industry prevent their customers from becoming ill and safeguard them against legal action or forced closures from serving unsafe food. By calibrating equipment, food companies ensure they maintain an excellent reputation in their industry.
3. More Savings
When you calibrate your equipment on recommended schedules, you can save a great deal of money. Since calibrating equipment prevents accuracy errors, it helps manufacturers limit mistakes during the production process that could lead to unusable products. Similarly, inaccurate food temperature measurements could result in spoiled products. In research labs, inaccuracy could end up giving staff members incorrect readouts, rendering any results meaningless. Whatever your industry, errors eventually raise your costs.

Calibrating your equipment allows you to save money, as you won’t waste funds throwing away faulty products or spending more on staff costs when they have to redo tests in a lab. You’ll also save money and raise your revenue, as you’ll reduce expenses related to having to stop processes and restart them once your team discovers an inaccuracy. By reducing error, you better streamline your organization and ensure you get maximum value out of your equipment.

4. Easier Certification
Many industries require companies to have relevant certifications to operate legally. Before you do particular tasks, you’ll likely need verification from a regulatory body. Often, these certifications demand proof you calibrate your equipment and are trustworthy enough to produce accurate results.

If you regularly calibrate your equipment, you can more easily receive certification from relevant regulatory bodies. Calibration allows your equipment to deliver precise results, helping you pass any certification tests concerning your devices’ accuracy.

Contact Gulf Coast Calibration for Calibration Services

Due to the importance of calibration, you’ll likely want to partner with an expert to ensure your measuring devices are as accurate as possible. At Gulf Coast Calibration, we can confirm your equipment complies with industry standards and responds to you with minimal downtime. When you choose us for your calibration needs, we can calibrate your equipment at our state-of-the-art labs or come to your facility to perform on-site services. We even offer 24/7/365 on-call emergency response services.

Review our precision calibration services today. If you need more information or want a free quote, please feel free to contact us.