Creating and maintaining strong working relationships between our lab and industry isn’t just beneficial, it’s essential to ensuring both parties meet their responsibilities, perform high quality measurements in the lab and in the field, and ultimately serve the public with confidence. Traceability is the cornerstone of legal metrology. It connects every measurement we make back to the International System of Units (SI), ensuring that the results are trustworthy and legally compliant. For this process to work smoothly, however, service companies need to provide stable artifacts for calibration that meet specifications. This may sound simple, but maintaining the traceable chain of calibrations requires attention to detail and consistency. When service companies submit weights or volumetric artifacts for calibration, we depend on them to follow proper procedures. For example, a required legible serial number on an artifact ensures that it can be traced back to its calibration history. Clean equipment free of debris or contamination ensures that our lab can deliver precise and repeatable calibration results. This is why open communication is so important—it’s not just about sending equipment to the lab and receiving a certificate. It’s about maintaining the integrity of the entire measurement process, from the field to the calibration laboratory and back again. The relationship between a metrology lab and your service company should feel like a partnership. When both parties are working together with a shared goal—ensuring the highest possible standard of measurements—everyone benefits. This close collaboration streamlines the calibration process, minimizes potential errors, and fosters trust. Service companies know they can rely on the lab to provide quick, accurate calibrations, and the lab relies on them to submit equipment that meets the necessary standards for calibration. Strong relationships also enable both parties to be more proactive. For instance, if a service company notices an issue with equipment in the field, they can quickly notify the lab, allowing the metrologists to troubleshoot and resolve the issue before it leads to bigger problems. Likewise, labs can offer advice on how to properly maintain equipment between calibrations, ensuring that the service company’s operations continue to run smoothly and reducing the likelihood of a metrology lab rejecting the artifact during the calibration process. Ultimately, the success of both metrology labs and private industry hinges on a strong working relationship. Collaboration allows programs to maintain high standards of accuracy, precision, ensuring traceability, while also making the calibration process more efficient and responsive.
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