Why Laboratory Equipment Calibration is Importance?

Laboratory Equipment Calibration may cost hundreds of dollars to experts based on the type of the device. Wondering why does lab owner spends so much money on calibrating the equipment. What is the importance of calibration in laboratory equipment? Calibration is essential to ensure the accurate result of laboratory tests. It has lots of other exciting benefits as well. 

Read on and understand briefly why should you calibrate the laboratory equipment routinely as well as the types and processes of calibration applied in the typical laboratory. 

What Is Equipment Calibration?

Equipment Calibration is a method of adjusting a piece of measuring equipment to make sure its readings are accurate within a particular tolerance. The key intention of calibration is to ensure that the measurement results made with a certain instrument are consistent and accurate.

This method is typically done by comparing the instrument’s result to a known standard like a master gauge. In addition, an instrument needs to be calibrated against another standard of known accuracy to be calibrated successfully.

The Laboratory Equipment Calibration

Laboratory Equipment Calibration is vital to get precise and accurate readings from the equipment. This process can be performed on a range of laboratory equipment including balances, scales, pH meters, centrifuges & pipettes. The steps involve checking the instrument’s accuracy against a particular measurement and adjusting the equipment accordingly.

Most of the time, calibration is performed semi-annual or annual basis. Calibrating lab equipment routinely makes scientist confident about their result.

Advantages Of Laboratory Equipment Calibration

Below are some exciting importance of calibration in laboratory equipment:

Maintains Accuracy

Calibration is crucial as it helps make sure the data collected by the equipment is precise. For example, if you don’t calibrate your pH meter properly, it may produce a too-low or too-high reading. It can cause inaccurate results during measuring the acidity of a solution.

Extends the Life of Instruments and Devices

Equipment Calibration is a great way to extend laboratory equipment’s longevity by keeping them in optimum condition. Over time, the instrument can drift out of calibration because of the change in humidity or temperature. Calibrating laboratory equipment regularly also keeps the device in dependable condition and ensures easier working order.

Maintain the Function of Laboratory Equipment

Every laboratory Equipment Calibration has its function that needs to be maintained properly. In this case, calibration comes in handy. By calibrating laboratory equipment, you can determine whether the device is functioning properly or experiencing problems that need replacement. 

Remember, using equipment that has decreased the quality of its function can produce invalid results of testing and measurements. Additionally, an undetected decline in the function quality can also make the tool unusable and damaged.

Reduces the Risk of Hazards

Equipment Calibration reduces the chance of work accidents and dangerous situations that may be caused due to using incorrect measurements. For example, if a device isn’t calibrated accurately, it can provide a wrong reading that can cause a chemical fire or spill. Ultimately, calibration is a crucial process that helps ensure the safety of the workers and equipment.

Detect Disturbances in Laboratory Equipment

While calibrating laboratory equipment, you can review the accuracy of the equipment. So if you find a difference between the calibrated equipment and the verified reference standard, you can seek it immediately. This way, you can detect errors or interference in the equipment earlier before causing something serious. 

Therefore, you should calibrate your laboratory equipment regularly, particularly the devices that have a heavy workload. The reason is that lab equipment with heavy workloads is exposed to external elements more often which can interfere with their performance.

In addition, you can schedule a calibration for your equipment following the manufacturer’s guidelines. You can also adjust the situation and conditions in the lab area to make the calibration more accurate. 

Allows you to Detect Faulty Equipment

 By calibrating your lab equipment, you can detect the disturbances in the device and correct them to get an accurate result out of that instrument. Calibration also helps improve the accuracy and precision of measurement and identify as well as correct errors with the lab equipment.

 This process is a vital part of quality control and helpful for ensuring the scientific research’s validity. Without calibration, you can get misinterpreted and inaccurate results from the experiments which can cause incorrect conclusions.

Saves Money

Equipment Calibration is a great way to reduce errors that can become expensive in the long run. No matter whether your facility is a research, goods, or manufacturer lab, that error can occur. For example, if a manufacturer lab owner doesn’t calibrate his equipment, he may get unusable parts. Likewise, a research laboratory that doesn’t calibrate can get meaningless results due to inaccurate measurements.

Apart from that, if you don’t calibrate, you may need to halt and restart the process after discovering inaccuracies. The later you’ll notice the inaccuracies, the costlier repair you may have. So calibrating regularly can help you avoid those expensive repair costs.

Types of Calibration

Following are some of the common types of calibration you may have to use:

Humidity and Temperature

If you work with humidity generators, thermometers, weather stations, thermal cameras, and other equipment that work with humidity and temperature, you’ll have to calibrate them. However, you can perform this type of calibration in a controlled environment so that outside change can’t affect the process.

Pressure

Test gauges, Transmitters, and barometers may require calibration. With the calibration process, you can measure the spectrum of gas pressure and hydraulics. In addition, this equipment needs to be calibrated to maintain national or international standard

Mechanical

Mechanical calibration calibrates for aspects like vibration, force, mass, or torque. For instance, you may need to get a scale calibrated to calculate weight precisely. Micrometers, torque wrenches, and balances are also among the lab equipment that need calibration. 

 Electrical

A device that measures voltage, frequency, or resistance will be required to calibrate routinely. The other device that needs electrical calibration is data loggers, clamp meters, and insulation testers.

Apart from these common calibration types, you may need to get lots of different implements calibrated in various ways. Every calibration type requires using various methods to get accurate results.

How To Determine When Equipment Should Be Calibrated?

You may need to go through some considerations during deciding whether or not to calibrate your laboratory equipment. 

Firstly, you should check the manufacturer’s suggestions as there may be specific instructions about the time of calibrating. 

Secondly, consider how often you use the equipment. If you use the device frequently, you may need to calibrate them more often compared to those that are used occasionally. 

Lastly, consider how critical measurement accuracy is. If you desire highly accurate measurements, you may have to calibrate more often.

Considering these aspects, you can ensure that your laboratory equipment will give a precise reading and reliable result.

Lab Equipment Calibration Process

The laboratory equipment calibrating process is effective for ensuring the result’s precision achieved from the laboratory tests. This process starts with making some standard solutions; each with the substance’s known concentration that is being measured.

Then you have to use these solutions to calibrate the laboratory equipment. The next step is to adjust it until it provides the reading that matches the standard solution’s known concentrations.

After completing the calibration, you can use the equipment to measure the substance’s concentration accurately in unknown samples. Remember, you must perform the calibration regularly to make sure that the lab equipment remains accurate all the time.

FAQs

Final Words

Hope you understand what is the importance of Laboratory Equipment Calibration. Calibration and maintenance of lab equipment are crucial for the equipment that is often used in the lab to perform various experiments and tests. It helps ensure the proper functioning of the laboratory equipment. To get the precise result out of the experiment and research, you may need to calibrate the equipment regularly. in this case, you can take the aid of the team at GNW or other various consultants.