What Equipment Needs to Be Calibrated?

Equipment calibration is crucial to many different kinds of tools and instruments in various industries. Whenever you need to use instruments for precise measurements, calibration is essential, no matter the industry you’re in. Calibration of equipment helps companies cut down on errors, increase customer satisfaction and reduce costs. Due to all these advantages of calibration, it’s important to know what equipment requires calibration so you can keep your instruments and tools working properly and delivering trustworthy results.

Find out more about what instruments need to be calibrated by industry and the importance of calibration services.

What Is Calibration?

Calibration for measuring instruments is the process of checking an instrument’s accuracy and a measurement’s traceability. After a technician checks the accuracy of what needs to be calibrated, they’ll restore the instrument to its original state to ensure it delivers accurate measurements again.

Main Types of Instruments Calibrated in Various Industries

You can find equipment calibration in many different industries requiring highly precise measurements. Some of the primary industries relying on calibration include the medical, pharmaceutical, aerospace, defense, automotive and manufacturing industries. Since all of these industries employ precise measuring devices that must meet various industry compliance standards, it’s crucial you know what devices need calibration.

Review some of the primary instruments requiring calibration by industry below:

Medical

The medical industry requires a variety of calibration services to ensure equipment works properly. Since many medical instruments and equipment are used in lifesaving applications, it’s crucial they work to their best ability. As a patient’s health and safety are essential to effective healthcare, medical equipment must be calibrated to meet strict standards for precision.

Calibration services help to make sure these instruments perform optimally for a long time. When a medical company or organization calibrates medical equipment, they’ll prevent a device from making mistakes and raise the chances a medical tool delivers accurate results. Regular calibration also helps companies comply with various regulations to prevent them from running into legal trouble or providing inadequate performance to patients. You can find several calibration services for many medical applications, such as those involving force, abrasion and torque testing.

Review some examples of what medical equipment needs to be calibrated below:

  • Pipettes
  • Microscopes
  • Chart recorders
  • pH meters
  • Balances
  • Scales
  • Centrifuges
  • Ovens
  • Vaccine storage equipment
  • Moisture analyzers
  • Autoclaves
  • Conductivity meters
  • Viscometers

Pharmaceutical

Like the medical industry, the pharmaceutical industry produces lifesaving drugs and other products necessary for people’s health. Many of the devices used to produce these drugs are highly sensitive, with inaccurate measurements potentially costing pharmaceutical companies a great deal of money to replace poor-quality products. Improper measurements can also result in a pharmaceutical company losing its reputation or dealing with lawsuits if its poor-quality products hit the market.

Due to the importance of accuracy in pharmaceutical testing and manufacturing processes, pharmaceutical equipment needs accurate and reliable calibration. With regular pharmaceutical equipment calibration, a company can ensure their customers receive products best designed for their health and safety. Calibration also protects a company’s brand reputation and reduces labor and replacement expenses from producing low-quality products.

Review the following main pieces of pharmaceutical equipment requiring calibration:

  • Moisture analyzers
  • Sieves
  • Microscopes
  • Pipettes and micropipettes
  • pH meters
  • Thermometers
  • Micrometers

One essential service for the pharmaceutical industry is pipette calibration. Since a pipette’s accuracy is subject to factors like temperatures, air pressure and humidity, regular calibration ensures these instruments deliver optimal performance and results for the longest time possible. If you’re in the pharmaceutical industry, pipette calibration — alongside other instrument calibration — safeguards you from inaccuracies during manufacturing and testing applications, helping your company deliver exceptional products.

Aerospace

The aerospace industry relies on various tools and complex processes to produce aircraft and the various devices aircraft rely on. Since there’s a minimal margin for error while flying, calibrating in the aerospace industry is essential. Among the many regulations and production protocols governing this industry, precision measurement requirements play a major role. An aerospace company that doesn’t calibrate its instruments and tools can run into compliance issues and malfunctioning products.

Aerospace calibration helps companies reduce all the risks associated with not calibrating. When a company turns to a calibration business, technicians will correct equipment and adjust it back to industry specifications to ensure tools and instruments work properly. Periodic calibration also helps aerospace companies raise their reputation for producing high-quality products and helps save on costs originating from errors.

Some of the most common aerospace tools and instruments requiring aerospace calibration include:

  • Micrometers
  • Dial indicators
  • Hardness testers
  • Microscopes
  • Oxygen gages
  • Torque wrenches
  • Oscilloscopes
  • Depth gages
  • Plain and threaded rings
  • Amp meters
  • Pin gages
  • Profilometers
  • Calipers
  • Infrared thermometers
  • Surface plates
  • Process calibrators

Defense

The defense industry is another industry where companies, such as defense contractors, have to meet strict standards and employ highly precise measurements. When an armed service member is out in the field or in training, they need their equipment to work to the best of its ability. Mistakes can cost service members their lives, and calibration minimizes the risk of mistakes happening due to faulty equipment. Since precision is vital in this industry, it also has many standards governing it, making proper calibration crucial.

Due to the many protocols for manufacturing and maintaining defense industry equipment, defense manufacturers must properly calculate physical dimensions for various products. Correct calculations help to increase the safety and reliability of a defense contractor’s products. By having reliable measurements, a defense contractor can improve their reputation and ensure they keep service members safe while in the field. Like in other industries, regular calibration also helps defense contractors save money and get the most out of their labor by avoiding the production of inadequate products.

Check out some of the main kinds of defense equipment requiring calibration below:

  • Tracers
  • Aircraft test kits
  • Oscilloscopes
  • Avionics
  • RF devices
  • Hydraulic pressure sensors
  • Ammunition loading systems
  • Sub-sea depth sensors
  • Thermometers
  • Safety switches
  • Gages
  • Electrical equipment

Automotive

Equipment calibration is crucial to the automotive industry, as this industry relies on several types of instruments and devices to do their work. Automotive equipment’s accuracy can be affected by humidity and temperature, leading to inaccurate measurements and poor performance. When a company doesn’t calibrate its equipment, it can end up with imprecise measurements. Poor measuring can harm the overall quality of work and cause costly errors.

As a result, automotive calibration is essential to any company wanting to deliver high-quality results to their customers. Since there are industry-wide standards for automotive manufacturing and other tasks, it’s crucial a company can meet them. With reliable automotive calibration services, an automotive company can expect to receive greater customer satisfaction and reduce costs from mistakes.

Learn more about some of the top things that need calibrating in the automotive industry below:

  • Gages: Automotive tools like dial gages, depth gages and bore gages all need calibration to ensure they deliver highly precise performance. Periodic maintenance can help all of these gages continue to give you total accuracy.
  • Torques wrenches and testers: Torque wrenches and testers need to accurately measure torque and also produce the right amount of it. Regular calibration ensures these tools will give you accurate measurements and torque.
  • Calipers: Calipers are regularly used for everyday dimensioning operations, making precise measurements crucial. Calibration is essential to help them deliver the right measurements over the long term.
  • Gages: Those in the automotive industry utilize height and thickness gages, vacuum gages and pumps and tire pressure gages to give them accurate measurements. Since these tools are so essential, calibration is a must, as they help them operate correctly.
  • Digital tools: Digital devices like indicators and digital micrometers can start to lose their precision over time. Calibration helps these tools retain their accuracy and deliver reliable results.

Manufacturing

Companies in the manufacturing industry rely on many different pieces of equipment to produce high-quality products. Since clients want their products at the lowest prices, highest speeds and best quality possible, manufacturing companies can’t afford to have a hitch in their production line. Malfunctioning equipment can result in manufacturing slow-downs and lower-quality items. Routine calibration can stop equipment from malfunctioning, making it essential to the manufacturing industry.

When manufacturing equipment starts to deliver inaccurate results due to environmental and usage factors, such as temperature, humidity or heavy use, a successful company will turn to calibration services. These services will ensure a company’s equipment and tools provide accurate readings matching the true values again. Calibration also assists manufacturing companies as they attempt to meet industry or client-specific standards. With routine calibration, a manufacturing company raises the chance they save on costs, complete orders fast and always provide high-quality products to customers.

If you need to calibrate manufacturing equipment, learn more about some of the industry’s primary instruments and devices requiring calibration below:

  • Oscilloscopes: Manufacturing companies use oscilloscopes to check voltage readings. Calibration ensures these devices display accurate voltage readings and can perform their tasks properly.
  • Scales and weights: Those in the manufacturing industry often rely on scales and weights to measure components, with many of these components having tight tolerances. Calibration restores scales and weights to their most precise forms, allowing companies to receive reliable measurements.
  • Thermocouples: Thermocouples help manufacturing companies ensure they have the right temperatures for heat-sensitive processes. Since an improper temperature reading could end up harming the final product, calibration is essential to ensuring a thermocouple delivers the best performance and reliability possible.
  • Pressure meters: Many manufacturing processes require accurate readings from pressure meters. Since these pressure meters can start to break down and deliver inaccurate results, it’s important to calibrate them for trustworthy measurements.
  • Tachometers: Tachometers are another common device used in the manufacturing industry that requires calibration. These devices are used to measure a machine’s disk or shaft’s rotation speed. With routine calibration, a manufacturing company can be certain they’re receiving the correct measurements.

Why Do We Need Calibration? Why Is Calibration Important?

Regardless of your industry, calibration is a crucial step to ensuring regulatory compliance and receiving accurate measurements from your instruments. You can also see several other benefits from calibration, with some of the top advantages including higher customer satisfaction and cost savings. A reputable calibration company can provide you with calibration services designed to maximize these benefits and help you stay focused on other processes instead of having to think about calibration yourself.

As you determine if calibration services are right for you, find out more about why calibration is essential for any company employing measuring devices:

  • Long-term accuracy: When a piece of equipment isn’t calibrated, it can start to experience wear from various factors, such as its use, temperature, user error and humidity. Over time, the accuracy will begin to drift, resulting in inaccurate results that could affect key processes. Calibration helps to extend the life of a piece of equipment by fixing it when it starts to produce inaccurate measurements, thereby restoring its ability to provide reliable test results.
  • Regulatory compliance: In any industry, you’ll face various regulations designed to make products and processes safer. These regulations will often apply to measuring equipment to protect operators and clients. With proper calibration, you can ensure your equipment doesn’t accidentally make you fall out of compliance due to inaccurate measurements. By complying with regulations, you can maintain your brand’s high reputation and avoid fines or other legal consequences from not following the law.
  • Cost savings: Mistakes can cost a great deal of money, especially if they occur over a lengthy amount of time. Periodic calibration for all your equipment reduces the chances of mistakes, saving you money in having to pay for repairs, dispose of unusable products and spend on the additional materials required to complete an order. Calibration can also help you save on labor costs, as you won’t have to devote staff to fixing mistakes and instead use them for more profitable ventures.
  • Customer satisfaction: Since calibration prevents mistakes from faulty equipment, there’s a higher chance you produce better performing products. As a result, calibrating your equipment makes it more likely you’ll have more satisfied customers and clients, leading to them returning to you for other products. Higher customer satisfaction can also help you build a reputation in your industry for producing high-quality work. This enhanced reputation can translate to more clients and a higher revenue stream, making calibration one of the most financially savvy decisions.
  • Profitability: As mentioned above, calibrating equipment can raise your companies profitability, making calibration services an investment that quickly pays for itself. Since calibration helps your team be more productive, avoid fines from regulators, save on costs and raise customer satisfaction, you can reap many financial benefits by calibrating your equipment. With calibration, you can cut down on costs while also opening up new revenue streams, resulting in increased profitability.

Choose Garber Metrology for Equipment Calibration Services

At Garber Metrology, we’re experts at equipment calibration, assisting companies in all the industries described above. Thanks to our expertise, you can trust us to calibrate your equipment and restore its accuracy. We’re also highly flexible — you can either send your equipment to our state-of-the-art calibration lab or have one of our expert technicians come to your facility to perform calibration services. Our many certifications, such as ISO-9001 registration and ISO-17025 accreditation, show you can trust us to use only the best processes and comply with regulations.

Take a moment to review our precision calibration services to see how we can help. If you have any questions, contact us to receive a free quote and get answers to any questions you might have.