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Calibration Services

Calibrating your test and measurement hardware regularly is critical to ensuring quality measurements and traceability. With multiple levels of calibration available, in addition to flexible options for service, we can help you maintain peak performance while meeting your budgetary and uptime needs.

Flexible Service Options
to Accommodate Your Needs

We offer different types of calibration service to optimize your budget and uptime needs. You then have the option to select standard calibration, expedited calibration, or on-site calibration service. Avoid hefty penalties by calibrating regularly and following applicable standards. We provide multiple levels of calibration to help you meet these requirements.

Calibration Type Traceable Compliant Accredited
Detailed measurement data for all applicable channels
Availability at point-of-sale
Calibration performed by ISO 17025 accredited laboratory
Evaluation of measurement uncertainty
Calculated expanded measurement uncertainty

Performed using NI-developed calibration procedures and measurement standards traceable to SI units. Recommended for most applications.

Complies with ANSI/NCSL Z540-1-1994 and includes a measurement uncertainty evaluation. Performed at an ISO 17025-accredited laboratory.

ISO 17025-accredited calibration that includes detailed measurement uncertainty and official logo of accreditation body

Top 5 Reasons to Calibrate your Hardware

Quality policies require it, government agencies mandate it, and international standards bodies oversee it. However, understanding why calibration is such a big deal can sometimes be difficult. Here are the top 5 reasons.

Do you want to take measurements or estimates? Whether testing components on a production line or monitoring the performance of a wind turbine, you should be confident in your measurements. Electronic components naturally drift over time, which can cause uncertainty in your measurements. Calibration helps to ensure the accuracy of your measurements and allows you to compare the performance of your device with published specifications..

Can you afford to throw good products away? Two production issues that can drive down your yields are:

False Passes – instances where inaccurate measurements cause a bad unit to appear to pass a test. A “false pass” can be very dangerous, especially if your product guides a missile or monitors a patient’s heart rhythms.

False Failures – an equally expensive problem , false failures describes the case where a good unit appears to fail a test. These “false failures” may require more extensive (and expensive) testing and additional time for rework.

Calibrating your instruments helps maximize your production yields by eliminating both “false failures” and “false passes”..

Are you required to calibrate? Many larger or more heavily regulated industries follow international standards that require calibration. From general Quality Management Systems, like ISO 9001, to requirements specifically targeted toward testing and calibration laboratories, like ISO/IEC 17025, there are a number of standards that dictate why and how you calibrate. Make sure that you are following applicable standards and avoid hefty penalties by selecting the right type of calibration.

What does it cost if your system breaks? When deploying your systems, it is important to keep in mind the difference between planned downtime for maintenance and unplanned downtime that may require you to shut down your production line or send a technician into the field. By taking advantage of less expensive planned downtime to calibrate your system, you can help avoid more expensive unplanned downtime due to your product being out of calibration..

How do you know that your measurement is the same as everyone else? By comparing all measurements to a single unit, or the international system of units (SI), you can be confident that your measurement matches your neighbor. The property of traceability – the result can be related to a reference through a documented unbroken chain of calibrations – helps you make these comparisons. By calibrating through methods that maintain traceability, you can know that your measurement will stand the test of time.

Turnaround Times

Typical turnaround times for different calibration services vary from 3 to 10 working days. Standard or Express shipping options are available. Turnaround time for On-Site Calibration varies by amount of hardware.

Option Typical Turnaround Times Typical Shipping
Standard Calibration for Non-RF Products Less than 5 working days (traceable) Less than10 working days (compliant and accredited) Standard
Standard Calibration for RF Products Less than 10 working days Standard
Expedited Calibration (traceable only) Less than 3 working days Express
On-Site Calibration Varies by amount of hardware N/A

ESZ Calibration

Our partner, esz AG calibration & metrology is among Europe’s leading and most modern metrology laboratories. esz’s core competency is the industrial calibration for T&M equipment. Tailored software solutions, an outstanding range of service and cost transparency characterize esz AG in 40 years of business. esz is able to perforfm electrical, RF, fiber, mechanical, temperature and dimensional calibration on thousands of instruments. Contact us to discuss what is the best option to calibrate your NI or non-NI equipment.