Quality System
Quality System & Standards
The standards, traceability and management arrangements that govern the work described on this site.
Overview
Calibration and performance verification work is placed with laboratories accredited to ISO/IEC 17025:2017. Each request is scoped against the performing laboratory's published scope of accreditation before a quotation is issued, matching the instrument, its range, and the required uncertainty against what that scope actually covers.
Standards Referenced
Work described on this site is performed under ISO/IEC 17025:2017.
Statements of accreditation on this site describe the laboratory doing the measuring. That accreditation is bounded by its published scope, and work outside those bounds is reported as non-accredited and shown as such on the certificate. The distinction is recorded on the document so it survives being filed and read later.
Metrological Traceability
Measurements are traceable to the SI through NIST, with each step in the chain documented at a stated uncertainty. Certificates identify the reference standards used, report the measurement uncertainty with its coverage factor, and state the decision rule applied wherever a statement of conformity is given. Where adjustment or repair takes place, results are reported both as-found and as-left, so the record shows what the machine was doing before correction as well as after. Accredited and non-accredited items are identified separately on the quote and on the certificate; a reported uncertainty smaller than the laboratory's scope CMC is treated as a finding, not a claim.
Every measurement is traced individually: the reference standard is named on the certificate together with its calibration status and the unbroken chain to the SI unit. An out-of-tolerance finding on a reference sets off a review of all work performed against it since its last calibration, and the customers concerned are notified.
Equipment and Maintenance
Equipment categories covered include bridge, gantry and cantilever coordinate measuring machines, portable articulated arms, granite surface plates, gauge blocks, and ring and plug gauges, alongside the hand tools and fixed gaging typically calibrated on the same interval. Documented procedures govern request review, method selection, result review and release, and a complaints-and-appeals process, giving a finding raised against a certificate a defined path to resolution.
Every reference carries a unique identifier, is stored and used under controlled conditions, and is recalibrated on a stated interval that is tightened when its drift history warrants. Anything damaged, overloaded or producing doubtful results is taken out of service and tagged, and it returns only on a written release.
Management System
The work sits inside a documented management system:
- 01
Controlled documents
Procedures carry issue and revision status.
- 02
Retained records
Retained for a defined period and retrievable against a certificate number.
- 03
Audit and review
Internal audit and management review run on a schedule.
- 04
Corrective action
Nonconforming work and improvement actions are tracked to closure, and their effectiveness is checked afterwards.
Impartiality and Complaints
Threats to impartiality are identified and managed, and every result is reported on what the measurement shows rather than on what would be commercially convenient. Complaints and appeals feed formally into the same system — the process, including the response commitment, is set out on the complaints policy page. How results should and should not be read is covered on the disclaimer page.
Assembling an approved-supplier file?
Scope, method statements and traceability detail are supplied with the quotation.