Category Archives: Calibration

The Silent Guardians of Food Systems: Unseen Heroes

Posted on by

In an increasingly interconnected world, safeguarding the integrity of our food systems has never been more critical. The term “food systems” refers to all the elements and activities related to producing and consuming food, and their effects, including economic, health, and environmental outcomes. From the producer’s field to the consumer’s plate, the entire food production and distribution chain relies heavily on precise measurement and control systems. 

For example, a large food distribution company that specializes in the delivery of fresh produce relies on a fleet of refrigerated trucks to transport goods from the warehouse to various retailers. Maintaining the cold chain is critical to ensure that perishable products, such as fresh produce, dairy, and frozen goods, remain safe for consumption. Proper temperature and humidity control are essential to prevent bacterial growth and maintain product quality. A slight miscalibration or deviation from the required conditions can lead to far-reaching consequences.

A slight miscalibration or deviation from the required conditions can lead to far-reaching consequences.

Let us explore the often-overlooked yet immensely important role that proper calibration plays in securing our food systems. We will discuss the significance of calibration and how it can make or break businesses in the food industry.

The Unseen Heroes: Calibration’s Role in Food Systems

  1. Ensuring Consumer Safety: In the world of food, safety is paramount. Precise measurement and control systems play a pivotal role in preventing contamination and ensuring the products we consume are safe. Whether it’s the correct measurement of ingredients or maintaining optimal storage conditions, calibration is the unsung hero in keeping consumers safe.
  2. Navigating Regulatory Compliance: The food industry is governed by strict regulatory standards, and adhering to these standards is non-negotiable. Accurate calibration helps businesses meet these regulations, significantly reducing the risk of expensive fines and legal complications.
  3. Consistency is Key: Consistency is a competitive edge in the food industry. Accurate calibration ensures that products maintain the same high standards every time, fostering trust and loyalty among customers.
  4. The Path to Efficiency: Efficiency is paramount in an industry where perishable goods need to be processed and distributed promptly. Well-calibrated measurement systems can significantly boost operational efficiency, reducing waste and enhancing overall productivity.

Unsung Heroes

Behind the scenes, calibration laboratories play a pivotal role in safeguarding the food systems we depend on. Their expertise is crucial for the industry to thrive, yet their role often goes unnoticed.

Calibration services, provided by ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accredited laboratories like Selfa, ensure that these unsung heroes continue to perform their silent duty. 

Embrace the idea that calibration services can become silent guardians of your business, the invisible hands that ensure your products are safe, consistent, and efficient. Take a moment to consider how precision behind the scenes can make a significant difference in the grand narrative of the food industry.

Let us explore some of the consequences of miscalibration for a large food distribution company that specializes in the delivery of fresh produce relies on a fleet of refrigerated trucks to transport goods from the warehouse to various retailers.

  1. Food Safety: If the temperature sensors inside the refrigerated trucks are even slightly miscalibrated, it can result in temperature fluctuations. This can lead to bacterial growth in the products, making them unsafe for consumption. In the worst-case scenario, consumers may fall ill due to foodborne illnesses, leading to potential legal actions against the food distribution company.
  2. Product Quality: The quality of the fresh produce is also affected. A miscalibration causing temperature fluctuations can lead to the deterioration of the products, resulting in unsellable or lower-quality items upon arrival at the retailers. This directly impacts the company’s finances as they may need to compensate for losses or discard spoiled products.
  3. Reputational Damage: Consistent miscalibrations can lead to a tarnished reputation for the food distribution company. Retailers and consumers will lose trust in their ability to provide safe, high-quality products. This loss of trust can result in reduced business and profitability over time.
  4. Compliance Issues: In the food industry, regulatory bodies have strict standards for temperature and humidity control. Even slight miscalibrations that lead to non-compliance can result in fines and penalties for the company.

To prevent these consequences, the food distribution company must invest in precise calibration and regular maintenance of its cold-chain monitoring systems. Accurate calibration ensures that temperature and humidity readings are reliable and within the required ranges, thereby safeguarding food safety, product quality, and the company’s reputation. It also ensures compliance with industry regulations, reducing the risk of legal actions and fines.

Final Word…

In a world where food systems are integral to our well-being, calibration services silently secure this essential aspect of our lives. They are the silent guardians of an industry that feeds nations.

The next time you walk into a supermarket, dine at a restaurant, or cook a meal at home, take a moment to appreciate the unseen forces at work, ensuring that the food you enjoy is safe, consistent, and high-quality.

And for those who wish to explore the world of calibration services, consider how these silent guardians can support your journey in the food industry. Calibration is the key to unlocking excellence.

Talk to us today about how Selfa can help you improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your measurement and control systems.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Industrial Machinery Maintenance

Posted on by

Industrial machinery forms the backbone of many operations, and effective maintenance is crucial to keep it running smoothly. However, there are common mistakes that organizations make when it comes to maintenance, which can lead to downtime, increased costs, and safety risks. Let’s explore a few of these pitfalls and how to steer clear of them:

  1. Neglecting Regular Inspections and Maintenance: Regular check-ups and preventive maintenance are vital to catch potential issues before they escalate. Neglecting this can lead to unexpected breakdowns and higher repair costs.
  2. Lack of Documentation: Proper record-keeping of maintenance activities, repairs, and replacements is essential. Without accurate documentation, it’s challenging to track machine history and make informed decisions regarding maintenance strategies.
  3. Using Incorrect or Poor-Quality Parts: Opting for subpar or incorrect parts during maintenance can compromise the performance and longevity of machinery. Always choose high-quality, genuine parts to ensure optimal functioning.
  4. Overlooking Training and Skills Development: Skilled technicians are key to effective machinery maintenance. Investing in training and skill development programs ensures that your team is equipped to handle maintenance tasks efficiently and accurately.
  5. Ignoring Safety Protocols: Safety should be a top priority in any industrial setting. Failing to follow safety protocols during maintenance can lead to accidents or injuries, impacting both individuals and the organization.
  6. Not Planning for Downtime: Maintenance inevitably requires downtime. Failing to plan and communicate downtime schedules to relevant stakeholders can disrupt production and customer commitments.
  7. Underestimating Future Maintenance Needs: Industrial machines age and evolve, requiring adjustments in maintenance approaches. Failure to anticipate and plan for changing maintenance needs can lead to inefficiencies and increased costs.

Proper and regular calibration of industrial machinery plays a pivotal role in effective maintenance management. Calibration ensures that machinery operates within specified performance parameters, guaranteeing accurate readings and optimal functionality. By regularly calibrating equipment, you not only extend its lifespan but also enhance its reliability and precision. Moreover, calibrated machinery contributes to a safer work environment and compliance with industry regulations. Incorporating calibration into your maintenance regimen provides a proactive approach to identifying potential issues early on, enabling timely interventions and cost-effective solutions. It’s an investment that pays off by improving overall operational efficiency and reducing downtimes, ultimately leading to better outcomes for your organization.

Avoiding these common mistakes is crucial to maintaining an efficient, productive, and safe industrial environment. By prioritizing regular inspections, proper documentation, employee training, safety protocols, and strategic planning, organizations can ensure their machinery operates optimally, enhancing overall productivity and profitability.

#IndustrialMachinery #MaintenanceBestPractices #OperationalEfficiency #SafetyFirst

Which Is More Important: ISO 17025 Accreditation or ISO 9001 Certification?

Posted on by

To the casual observer, the terms “accreditation” and “certification” might sound as though they mean the same thing.
But ISO – the International Organization for Standardization and the world’s largest accreditation/certification group – defines them differently.

  • Accreditation – “A third-party attestation related to a conformity assessment body conveying formal demonstration of its competence to carry out specific conformity assessment tasks.”
  • Certification – “A third-party attestation related to products, processes, systems or persons.”

As Quality Magazine noted a few years ago, ISO’s hierarchy is set up so that accreditation outranks certification in terms of importance.

Accreditation applies only to bodies implementing a certification service. This could be an ISO 17025 accredited lab delivering an accredited calibration or testing certificate.

Another way to think about it: You received a degree from your university. It was a certification that you were proficient in your field of study. But your school needed to become accredited in order to show that it had the authority to deem its students proficient.

Two Different Groups Oversee The World’s Accreditation Bodies.

  1. The IAF, or International Accreditation Forum, which evaluate groups that accredit organizations that certify manage systems, products or people.
  2. The International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), which assesses groups that accredit calibration and testing laboratories.

The confusion between certification and accreditation came about in part when some certification organizations began assessing labs to ISO 17025, a standard meant for deciding the qualifications of testing/calibration labs, and thus ILAC territory.

The ISO 9001 quality system is different than ISO 17025 in terms of purpose, emphasis and criteria. The standards line up in some areas, but they are separate, and achieving one does not mean you’ve met compliance with the other.

Do We Need ISO 9001 or ISO 17025?

IAF and ILAC have both said that ISO 17025 means accreditation rather than certification. Yet you may be reading this and wondering whether a company needs ISO 9001 certification, ISO 17025 accreditation, or both.

ISO 9001 certification applies to an entire organization. It’s an effective tool for management but does not include the necessary technical content to show that test/inspection/calibration data are reliable. Labs that perform calibration – and do not make products – need to meet ISO 17025 requirements, and not necessarily those of ISO 9001.

Suppliers who need reliable calibration backed by a quality system should seek out labs accredited to ISO 17025. And that accreditation should come from a body recognized under the ILAC’s mutual recognition agreement or MRA. These agreements are aimed at producing a network of accreditation bodies whose work is recognized around the globe.

For companies that do more than just laboratory services, it’s become common to get certified to ISO 9001 while having a lab accredited to ISO 17025.

At Selfa Calibration Laboratory, we chose to become accredited by NiNAS. Having this seal of approval from NiNAS means that we stand out even more in the already specialized market of calibration services provision.

Introduction to Measurement and Calibration

Posted on by

This course is intended for anyone using or calibrating measurement instruments, calibration coordinators, or for those responsible for maintaining quality. A thorough knowledge of measurement science is key to maintaining ISO quality standards. This course is designed to ensure that calibration terminology and practices are understood throughout the organization and especially by persons responsible for the contracting of calibration services. The course covers the basics to more advanced topics. 

Course Details:

  • Course Duration: 4 hours (9:00 am – 1:00 pm)
  • Date: April 25, 2019
  • Location: LCCI Building, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria

Learning Objectives:

  • Describe what metrology is, and what metrologists do.
  • Explain why measurement is important in our daily lives, commerce, product risk management, and international trade.
  • Contrast resolution, precision, and accuracy of a measurement system. Describe measurement uncertainty.
  • Describe the structure and use of a measurement system.
  • Describe different levels of standards and the requirements of traceability.
  • Explain the various components of a calibration system.
  • Describe the basic attributes of making good measurements.
  • Describe the units of measure and the various instruments used in various measurement parameters.

Who Should Attend:

This training will benefit all persons at any level using measurement instruments, including calibration coordinators, inspection personnel, and management; it can serve as a refresher for experienced technicians; or it can be used in orientation for new hires.

Course Outline:

  1. Introduction
    1. Definition of metrology
    2. Measurements in manufacturing
    3. Measurement in the global marketplace
    4. Importance of measurement
  2. Development and Concerns of Metrology
    1. Need for better measurements
    2. Determine and describe the differences between resolution, accuracy, precision, calibration, Type A uncertainty and Type B uncertainty
  3. Standards and Standardization
    1. Working standards, check standards and international standards
    2. Levels of standard accuracies, accuracy ratio between levels of calibration pyramid
    3. Requirements of traceability
    4. Metrology standardization documents
  4. Managing the Metrology System
    1. When a metrology system is needed
    2. Components of a metrology system
    3. Periodic calibration
    4. Determining period, fixed time intervals or other means, measurement assurance
    5. Record keeping
    6. Documented procedures
    7. Training
  5. Making Good Measurements: Elements of a Measurement System
    1. Measuring Instrument
    2. Measuring procedure
    3. Analysis of Measured data
    4. Measurement assurance
    5. Isolating errors
    6. Capability study
    7. Gage R & R
  6. Units and Measurement Instruments
    1. Length, height, optical, micrometers, metrology, etc.
    2. Time, Temperature, Flow, electrical quantities, etc.