Hi Can anyone tell me when completing an internal audit on 6.4, what they expect to see for section 6.4.2?
I how do you show you comply with the section for metal detectors : all identified measuring devices, including new equipment, shall be checked and where necessary adjusted, to a defined method traceable to a recognised national or international standard if possible.
Firstly, which standard are they referring to? UKAS?
("recognized" is a flexible term, see the text below)
Would your calibration contractor have a UKAS cert which shows the methods? or would the test sticks have a calibrated cert traceable to UKAS?
(traceable to a recognized national standard, Yes)
also why do they state 'if possible'?
thanks
W
Hi Whitney,
I suspect the answer(s) is multi-faceted, as usual.
An, afaik, "official" quote is –
In general, calibration of equipment needs to be traceable to national measurement standards. When using external calibration services a valid certificate should be obtained from a calibration laboratory that demonstrates competence, measurement capability and traceability.
A calibration certificate bearing the UKAS accreditation [or identity of the national standards laboratory or mark of an accreditation body with which UKAS has a recognition agreement] for the relevant calibration/verification will be sufficient evidence.
Lab24ed1.pdf 55.88KB
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The official national standards labs in UK appear to be as per this link –
http://gsi.nist.gov/...1-3/L2-9/L3-103
Some interpretative confusion is also possible, eg
http://www.absolutec...r-ukas-cal.html
In this context I anticipate that BRC may likely not care as to whether "exactly" national or not, eg afaik(?) NIST is the only national standards lab in USA but is likely equally acceptable to BRC via the bracketed comment in above quotation.
I am not in USA but local Calibration certificates referenced to be “traceable to NIST” seem to be fully BRC-acceptable. And similarly for metal detector test sticks, reference thermometers etc.
There is a quite detailed overview here -
https://en.wikipedia...iki/Calibration
Edited by Charles.C, 23 January 2016 - 06:19 AM.
edited/expanded