ISO17025 Calibration Centre for Flow Meters

A direct translation of the word ‘accreditation’ is providing trust. To measure this form of trust, standards are made to measure the expertise, impartiality and the level of continuous improvement of an organization. Laboratories that are accredited to the international standard ISO/IEC 17025 have demonstrated that they are technically competent and able to produce precise and accurate test and/or calibration data.

Why are precise and accurate measurements important? For an example: If you pay the bill at the fuel station you trust that the amount you have to pay is an accurate equivalent of the amount of fuel which you filled-up. The same counts for many additional processes in which measurement equipment are used to secure the outcome of your process. An ISO/IEC 17025 test certificate is the highest international level of calibration security which can be provided for measurement equipment. Bronkhorst is a proud owner of an accredited in-house ISO/IEC 17025 Calibration Centre (scope K127).

In this week’s blog I would like to take you with me to get a glance at our Bronkhorst Calibration Centre (BCC). This laboratory has been accredited since 2010 for gas, pressure and liquid flow calibration services.

For this, I followed Mandy Westhoff, one of our calibration centre operators, during her daily routines to get a realistic view on the activities of the calibration centre.

Bronkhorst Calibration Centre

Why do flow meters have to be calibrated?

In general, all flow meters will be calibrated as a final step in production. The instrument with certain parameters will be compared with a fixed reference in certain environmental conditions, to provide real flow measurements.

Measuring equipment is used to secure the outcome of a process, process owners have to be able to rely on these measurements where high accuracy and – more and more – traceability play an important role, for example in the Pharmaceutical market. It is a way of risk management.

Throughout the years, we have noticed a distinctive increase in ISO/IEC17025 calibrations in our calibration centre. An ISO/IEC 17025 calibration is often required as this is the highest level of calibration available in the market.

What does calibration mean?

What kind of calibrations can be done in the calibration centre?

The Bronkhorst Calibration Centre is an independent department within the Bronkhorst organization and therefore not subjected to any commercial influences whatsoever.

It can be said that the tasks of the calibration centre are twofold:

The BCC acts as an in-house lab which maintains all calibration standards used within the Bronkhorst organisation
The BCC acts as an external calibration lab which performs ISO/IEC 17025 calibrations for anyone who wants this certification on their instruments, for both Bronkhorst instruments and other brands. Moreover, the BCC can perform adjustments on new and existing flow meters and controllers and calibration devices.

Are you interested in our Calibration Center? Read our Calibration brochure.

The Bronkhorst Calibration Centre, an external calibration lab

The scope of the calibration centre includes calibration of gas flow, liquid flow and pressure.

About 60-70% of the performed ISO/IEC 17025 calibrations are ‘as found’ calibrations on used instruments. Many of our customers, especially in the Pharmaceutical market, Universities and Automotive industry, will send their instruments once a year for calibration. So they have a reliable instrument calibrated according to the highest level of calibration security which they can use as a reference for their own calibrations on-site.

To offer the highest standard of precise and accurate test and/or calibration data the environment of the laboratory is fully controlled. The calibration will be executed in a high-tech lab under conditioned circumstances by 21°C ± 2°C and a humidity of 50 ± 20%, which is outstanding. Even sunlight through the windows has been avoided and movement of people has been minimised as much as possible. Non-authorized personnel is not allowed to enter the calibration centre.

Can you explain the calibration process in the calibration centre?

After the acclimatisation process and setup, the operator will conduct a leakage test using the Flowbus Piston Prover (FPP). This test will be done prior to every calibration as a security check to maintain the high level of quality assurance.
After approval of the environmental conditions, the calibration starts. A standard calibration is performed on several measurement points. On these measuring points the accuracy of the instrument will be determined.

After a successful calibration the instrument is provided with a label mentioning the date of calibration and certificate number, so all can be traced back to the calibration dossier. The BCC coordinator will check if everything is done by protocol and all ISO/IEC 17025 calibration dossiers will be sent to the BCC Officer to perform a final check.

How about training?

All our calibration operators are trained to perform gas, as well as pressure and liquid calibrations according to the ISO/IEC17025 standard. Furthermore, we are taught how to maintain calibration devices, such as cleaning glass tubes and the chemicals which are used for calibration procedures.

Is it dangerous to do this type of work?

Training is the most important part. All our operators are highly competent and skilled employees. But still, all activities are primarily centered on human work. To keep the risk level as low as possible, everything is monitored closely during the calibration process and all materials used are checked on a regular base.

What makes your job interesting?

You never have a dull moment in this job, every day is different. The service you provide is always different, because it is customer specific. It is a nice idea that you can contribute to a successful customer’s process.

A typical day at Bronkhorst’s flow meter Calibration Centre