Instrument calibration service providers calibrate various instruments including many types of process monitoring devices and analytical equipment.

Serviced Instruments

Types of instruments that can be calibrated include:

• Flow instruments such as flow meters and sensors, gauges, totalizers or valve position indicators
• Pressure and vacuum instruments such as pressure sensors or gauges, meters, transducers or vacuum pumps
• Force, weight or mass instruments including strain gauges, load cells, scales or torque monitors
• Temperature instruments including thermocouple, RTD or thermistor type devices
• Humidity instruments including absolute or relative humidity, moisture content or dew point measuring devices
• Multimeter or electrical meters, either analog or digital
• Physical or dimensional instruments such as calipers, and micrometers, fiber optic or lightwave instruments including multiplexers, analyzers, isolators etc
• RF or microwave instruments such as transmitters, receivers, antennas etc.
• Generators
• Power supplies including any AC or DC power supply or conditioners
• Oscilloscopes or chart recorders
• Signal or function analyzers

Services and Features

Specific services offered by providers of instrument calibration services include rapid turnaround, on-site calibration, pickup and delivery, calibration documentation, in-house contract lab services, and online documentation.

• Rapid turnaround means the supplier offers quick turnaround on instrument calibration services, typically in a few days.
• A supplier offering on-site calibration has personnel and/or equipment for on-site calibration work, eliminating the added expense of taking the instrument off line and shipping it.
• The supplier offers pick-up and delivery services to minimize cost and time associated with using in-house personnel.
• Documentation or test reports show calibration information such as "as found" and "as left" data, next scheduled calibration, etc with calibration documentation.
• A supplier that offers in-house contract lab services has capabilities and resources for setting up an in-house contract lab for supplier - minimizing any downtime or lag in getting instruments quickly calibrated.

Supplier has online documentation system to access history, calibration certifications and recalibration notifications.

Standards and Certifications

Providers of instrument calibration services may have one of several calibration quality requirements. These include:

ISO / IEC 17025

ANSI / NCSL Z540-1

A2LA, ISO 9001

NIST standards

GMP / FDA quality requirements