SC QUALITY GUILDCalibration certificate and label record
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Record a calibration the way a certificate reports it: the item, the standards used, the as-found and as-left readings against their limits. Pick a decision rule and get the pass or fail at each point, the statement of conformity, the due date and the label.
ON THE EXAM · CCT III.H, III.G, IV.C, V.D.1, V.D.2, CQE IV.E, CMDA III.D.7 · FREE · NOTHING YOU TYPE LEAVES YOUR BROWSER
Q-BotClick for an explanation of this tool.For educational use. This page is a study aid. The method behind it has far more depth and detail than one page and one tool can cover, and what you see here is not everything the method offers or everything this site offers. For full understanding and application, use the governing standards and texts, and seek further education, training or qualified advice. Results depend on the data you enter, so check them before relying on them.
What a certificate must say
A calibration certificate is the evidence that an instrument was compared with traceable standards, and of what was found. ISO/IEC 17025:2017 clause 7.8 lists what it must contain. Every report needs a title, the laboratory's name and address, a unique number, the customer, the method, the item and its condition, the dates, the results with units, and who authorized it. A calibration certificate adds the measurement uncertainty, the environmental conditions, the traceability of the results, and, when the instrument was adjusted, the results before and after. The last section of this tool checks the record against that list.
As found and as left
The as-found reading is taken before anything is touched. It shows how the instrument was performing while it was in use. The as-left reading is taken after any adjustment, and it is the condition the instrument goes back into service in. An as-found reading out of tolerance matters even if the instrument was adjusted. Product measured with it since its last good calibration may be wrong, so the customer must be told and an out-of-tolerance impact review started. As-found data is also what a calibration interval review uses.
Decision rules
A statement of conformity ("pass") has to say how the measurement uncertainty U was taken into account. That is the decision rule, and ISO/IEC 17025 requires it to be agreed with the customer and stated in the report. The rules here follow ILAC-G8:09/2019:
- Simple acceptance: a reading inside the limits passes. The risk of a wrong pass is shared, and for a reading right at a limit it is about 50%.
- Guarded acceptance, w = U: a reading must be at least U inside the limits to pass. This keeps the false-accept risk at about 2.5% or less.
- Non-binary: pass, conditional pass (inside the limits but within U of one), conditional fail (outside but within U), and fail.
The guard-band calculator shows what each rule does to the false-accept and false-reject risk.
The label
The label is the user's view of the calibration status: the instrument ID, the calibration date, the due date and who did it. A "limited calibration" label says the instrument may only be used within stated limits. An instrument that still fails as left is labeled rejected and kept out of use. Due dates here add whole months, and a day that does not exist in the due month becomes its last day: January 31 plus one month is February 28 or 29.
Traceability
Each reference standard listed has its own certificate, and that chain of calibrations, each with its uncertainty, links the result back to the SI. A standard past its own due date on the day of the calibration breaks the chain; the tool flags it.
On the exam
CCT III.H asks you to distinguish calibration certificates, calibration labels, nonconformance reports and test reports, and III.G covers the records behind them. IV.C covers the statement of conformity and decision rule, V.D.1 determining conformance status, and V.D.2 the impact assessment after an out-of-tolerance finding. CQE IV.E covers calibration and traceability, and CMDA III.D.7 asks you to review calibration records and their traceability.