Why should I use an ISO IEC 17025 accredited calibration laboratory?

If your marketplace demands the highest levels of precision and dependability, you should entrust your equipment calibration to industry experts. Although generic-quality management standards, such as ISO 9001, cover calibration activities, ISO IEC 17025 was introduced in 2005 as a specific benchmark for the performance of calibration laboratories.

While not a legal requirement, any calibration laboratory that offers ISO IEC 17025 accredited calibration services can prove full compliance with the industry’s most demanding standard. This commitment to quality sets these service providers apart as the only worthwhile option for your precision calibration needs.

Why does equipment need to be calibrated to ISO IEC 17025?

The integrity of your business depends on your test and measurement equipment being properly calibrated. Periodic calibration involves a process of checks, adjustments and verifications that measure the performance of your equipment against a set of traceable physical quantities. 

Unless your instruments are periodically calibrated by a specialist, the accuracy of those instruments will degrade with time and use. If you don’t regularly calibrate your equipment, or receive sub-standard calibration services, you could put your business at risk. This can all affect quality and lead to reworks, product recalls, reduced profitability, and damage to your reputation.  

But your corporate reputation and revenue streams are safe when you insist on ISO IEC 17025.

What makes an ISO IEC 17025 calibration laboratory better?

There are many benefits to choosing an ISO 17025 accredited calibration laboratory. These include:  

• Training and competence. The skills of both internal staff and external contractors are continually assessed as part of the management system audit, with core competencies clearly listed. Where the technicians in a non-accredited lab may not have formal training, with ISO IEC 17025 calibration, your equipment will only be handled by professionals with specific experience.
• Calibration equipment. A lab offering accredited services must keep their equipment in calibrated condition and be able to provide proof of traceability. Should you need to carry out your own audit or due diligence, an accredited lab will have a complete paperwork trail.
• Confidentiality and impartiality. ISO 17025 demands that labs identify and prevent potential conflict of interest or commercial pressure. When your equipment is released after calibration, you know it has been through a comprehensive test process, and that no other factors or influences have detracted from the integrity of the service.
• Test facilities. Environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity and vibration can falsely influence calibration readings. The ISO standard requires that the testing lab can exclude these corrupting factors, and calibration results are guaranteed to be accurate. Calibration labs that do not offer accredited services will not have taken the same steps, so their procedures cannot offer the same guarantee. 

A laboratory that offers accredited calibration services has invested heavily in staff training, state-of-the-art facilities, and quality calibration tools. Their management and technical processes have been through a detailed audit and meet or exceed the standard. The accreditation is issued for specific calibration activities. Continual audits make sure these standards are maintained.

Accredited calibration procedures from DM Systems & Test

As well as having our quality management system audited to the ISO 9001 system, many of our calibration processes are accredited to ISO IEC 17025. And any mobile calibration services that are carried out on your premises come with the same quality guarantee.

For more information on ISO IEC 17025 calibration, talk to the calibration specialists at DM Systems & Test today.