Can we skip external calibration of weight scales and thermometers?
Hello,
As a small company, this is the 7th year of our SQF audit. For calibration, we do daily on thermometers (using both ice point and boiling water) and weekly on weight scales (the weights used, such as 2 lbs, 5 lbs,10 lbs, 50 lbs, are inspected by outside service with stickers on them).
In addition, we do use outside service to do annual calibration on both thermometers and scales as well to validate them, which cost around $1000-1500 per year, so the top management wants to save this small money and suddenly asked me this year if we could skip annual outside service in the future. Can we ??? Thank you !
Hello,
As a small company, this is the 7th year of our SQF audit. For calibration, we do daily on thermometers (using both ice point and boiling water) and weekly on weight scales (the weights used, such as 2 lbs, 5 lbs,10 lbs, 50 lbs, are inspected by outside service with stickers on them).
In addition, we do use outside service to do annual calibration on both thermometers and scales as well to validate them, which cost around $1000-1500 per year, so the top management wants to save this small money and suddenly asked me this year if we could skip annual outside service in the future. Can we ??? Thank you !
Hi chenyuni,
I'm not in USA but that sounds expensive unless there are a lot of units involved. IIRC, in some US threads here,users simply buy new thermometers annually since cheaper than calibration charge.
Do-it-yourself options depend on whether SQF demands calibration of all units to be directly officially (documented) traceable, eg to NIST, Hopefully (and probably) not.
If SQF is flexible, for thermometers you can have the best one (eg most accurate/stable) officially calibrated and designate this as an internal master then use this to calibrate other units as sub-masters. This assumes only zero and 100degC involved, If additional points are required it may get more complicated depending on their separation distance from fixed points.
For routine scales one can buy official, traceable, high grade checkweights for internal use. Annual calibration of these (if necessary) should be a lot cheaper than multiple scales. 50 lb values can become expensive however in principle you only need one or maybe (2x10 +5).
IMEX the above procedures are workable for BRC.
Hi chenyuni,
I'm not in USA but that sounds expensive unless there are a lot of units involved. IIRC, in some US threads here,users simply buy new thermometers annually since cheaper than calibration charge.
Do-it-yourself options depend on whether SQF demands calibration of all units to be directly officially (documented) traceable, eg to NIST, Hopefully (and probably) not.
If SQF is flexible, for thermometers you can have the best one (eg most accurate/stable) officially calibrated and designate this as an internal master then use this to calibrate other units as sub-masters. This assumes only zero and 100degC involved, If additional points are required it may get more complicated depending on their separation distance from fixed points.
For routine scales one can buy official, traceable, high grade checkweights for internal use. Annual calibration of these (if necessary) should be a lot cheaper than multiple scales. 50 lb values can become expensive however in principle you only need one or maybe (2x10 +5).
IMEX the above procedures are workable for BRC.
I agree with Charles. I believe you can do it all in house if you need to and do it correctly.
Agree with Charles, and better if you have certified / trained person or get yourself trained to perform internal calibration.