One of the first steps necessary to create a successful project is to calibrate equipment. The importance of maintaining your equipment is crucial and it’s a practice that many do not do. For some of us, our jobs depend on what we do with the equipment we have. What’s the use if we don’t calibrate? You wouldn’t trust yourself as a technician or car mechanic to fix things if you don’t follow its maintenance schedule and neither should you trust yourself if you aren’t following the proper manner of calibrating your instruments.
Calibration means the care and adjustment of measurement equipment to ensure that it’s giving accurate and reliable readings. This helps maximize the quality of your project and eliminate as much unwanted noise as possible. In this guide, you will find everything you need to know about calibration, including an introduction to waveforms, tips for calibrating your mixes, and precautions you can take before even hitting the record button.
Why Calibrate Your Instruments?
Calibration is the process of adjusting a measurement device to keep it within certain tolerances. Calibrating your instruments is an essential step in ensuring that you’re getting accurate readings. Even if you only use your equipment one time, calibration provides a baseline of performance that can be used to compare future measurements.
If you don’t calibrate your working instruments/equipment, they will not produce accurate measurements; and if you don’t calibrate calibration equipment, it will not produce accurate results. Calibration is essential for anything that involves measurement or test data; whether that be a sensor, a telescope, or a microscope. For example, temperature calibration in Dubai is necessary for all instruments to provide precise temperatures.
Why Calibrate Your Instruments/equipment?
Some of the most common situations in which calibration should be performed are as follows:
- When you first get your equipment, if it’s all new.
- Improper instrument setup. Your instrument must be within specification for the task you intend to perform in order for it to provide accurate results.
- Incorrect lab temperature. Calibrations are performed at the temperature of the room where the instrument will be used, and should not be performed at any other temperature.
- Inadequate air circulation. Proper air circulation is critical to maintaining calibration accuracy. Maintaining adequate air circulation will help prevent humidity from building up in your working space, which can lead to inaccuracies in instruments.
How often should my instrument be calibrated?
URS testing and calibration laboratory in UAE recommends companies to calibrate their instrument annually, and also most manufacturers. However, many instruments have an indicator light that lights up when it’s time to calibrate. And if the instructions came with your instrument, follow them. It’s possible to damage an instrument by not calibrating it on a regular basis, so don’t take chances.
Benefits of calibration of instruments and equipment
Calibration of your instruments, equipment and measuring devices is an important step to ensure that you are getting accurate measurements for your products. Before you begin, check your instrument manual for the recommended procedure. Calibration should be performed by a qualified ISO accredited laboratory in Dubai who has the expertise to verify proper functioning and accuracy of the equipment.
- Prevention of inaccurate measurement.
- Verification of proper functioning and accuracy. Ensure your readings are as accurate as possible by making sure they’re within specifications.
- Reliability: Ensures the machine is giving you accurate readings rather than faulty data.
- Quality assurance of measurements
- Precision: Ensures your readings are as precise as possible, especially if the reading is critical.
- Monitoring trends in measurement results for example on equipment in the field of temperature, mass, dimensional, torque and gas detection.
Ways to check your instrument accuracy
Scope of measurement. It’s important to choose an instrument that can measure the whole length of the material you’re working with. That includes thickness and width, too. If you’re doing something simple like checking the diameter of a bolt or screw, you probably don’t need any more accuracy than a machinist’s calipers. But if you’re making a complex part like a table leg or a drawer front, you need an instrument that offers full-length scale readings.
Accuracy of measurement. What is the accuracy of your measurement? High-precision tools can be incredibly expensive, but they generally offer better accuracy than lower-end tools. If you’re trying out new materials or conducting experiments where exact measurements are critical, you might want to invest in higher-quality equipment. Otherwise, stick with whatever works for your shop and doesn’t cost much money or take up much space.
How long will it last? Most instruments have warranties that cover their use and calibration for anywhere from 1 year to 2 decades; many come with longer guarantees on the calibration portion of their operation
You can also check for calibration visually. When you see a reading on the gauge or display that doesn’t look right, it’s time for a calibration check.
The best way to calibrate your instruments is by using a standard target that you can compare against the actual product under test. Both your instrument and the target should be at room temperature, so that there are no effects of heat or cold.
Laboratory calibration – Lab calibration is a crucial step to ensure the accuracy of scientific equipment. It’s especially important if you’re buying equipment that must be used in other countries. You don’t want to find out an instrument isn’t right for your field once you’re on site, so make sure it’s calibrated correctly before you send your samples off to another lab.
A reliable laboratory offers the best calibration services in UAE that results in a consistent, accurate measurement of your product or service. But the most important reason is that you can use lab results to prove that your product really does do what it is purported to do.