A quality infrastructure is based on several components.

Quality infrastructure refers to all aspects of metrology, standardization, testing, quality management, certification and accreditation that have a bearing on quality

Calibration is defined as ‘a set of operations that establish, under specified conditions, the relationship between the values of quantities indicated by a measuring instrument or measuring system … and the corresponding values realized by standards’.

Sometimes, however, the word calibration is misused to describe the process of altering the performance of an instrument to ensure that the values it indicates are correct within specified limits (eg adjusting a barometer until its reading agrees with that of another barometer).

Strictly this is adjustment – defined as the ‘… operation of bringing a measuring instrument into a state of performance suitable for its use’ – and not calibration, although the nature and magnitude of the adjustment is often determined by a pre-adjustment calibration, sometimes known as an as found calibration; such a procedure thus runs:

• first calibration (to determine the approximate magnitude of the adjustment needed)
• adjustment
• second calibration

Results from the first calibration will also be needed if the device’s reproducibility is to be estimated.

Industrial Metrology – Industrial metrology’s purpose is to ensure that instruments, used in a wide variety of industries, are functioning properly. An example of this type of metrology might be seen in the production of products for the commercial industry

Legal Metrology – Concerned with the measurements that influence economic transactions, legal metrology is a very refined type of metrology.

Scientific Metrology – is the theoretical base for Industrial and legal metrology.

This form of metrology deals with the organization and development of measurement standards and with their maintenance. As you might expect, scientific metrology is deeply involved with research and new technologies for industries concerning government, healthcare, and research for commercial products.

In general, there is no recommend set of recalibration interval for measuring instruments, devices, or standards. Specific recalibration intervals depend on several factors including:

• Accuracy requirements set by customers
• Specifications from the manufacture of instruments
• Requirements set by contract or regulation
• Inherent stability of the specific instrument
• Environmental factors that may affect the stability

We recommend that you set the calibration interval to 1 year if you have no experience. Thereafter you should follow the stability of the instrument and use this to increase or decrease the calibration interval.

In order to facilitate the free movement of goods, the states in the European common market (EU and EEA) have agreed on common rules for prepackages within the range 5 g to 10 kg (or 5 ml to 10 l).

The producer may under certain circumstances put a special e-mark on the packages. This mark is not obligatory but, when used, is a guarantee, recognized throughout the common market, that the goods to which it is applied have been packed by weight or volume in accordance with the European Council Directives 76/211/EEC or 75/106/EEC.

The e-mark acts, therefore, as a metrological “passport”.

In order to facilitate the free movement of goods, the states in the European common market (EU and EEA) have agreed on common rules for prepackages within the range 5 g to 10 kg (or 5 ml to 10 l).

The producer may under certain circumstances put a special e-mark on the packages. This mark is not obligatory but, when used, is a guarantee, recognized throughout the common market, that the goods to which it is applied have been packed by weight or volume in accordance with the European Council Directives 76/211/EEC or 75/106/EEC.

The e-mark acts, therefore, as a metrological “passport”.

ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation is the single most important standard for calibration and testing laboratories around the world. ISO 17025 accredited laboratorys  that are more than 50 000 wordwide have demonstrated that they are technically proficient and able to produce precise and accurate test and calibration data. This is a voluntary, third party-reviewed process that ensures of a laboratorys quality management system that  is thoroughly evaluated on a regular basis to guarantee continued technical competence and compliance with ISO 17025.

The OIML-CS is a system for issuing, registering and using OIML Certificates and their associated OIML type evaluation/test reports for types of measuring instruments (including families of measuring instruments, modules, or families of modules), based on the requirements of OIML Recommendations.

The aim of the OIML-CS is to facilitate, accelerate and harmonize the work of national and regional bodies that are responsible for type evaluation and approval of measuring instruments subject to legal metrological control.

In the same way, instrument manufacturers, who are required to obtain type approval in some countries in which they wish to sell their products, should benefit from the OIML-CS as it will provide evidence that their instrument type complies with the requirements of the relevant OIML Recommendation(s).

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