As part of our ISO9001:200 QMS we have to have measuring instruments recertified according to the manufacturer's specifications.
I'm pretty sure that any UKAS certified printer will have to do the same??
Excluding "in-line" colour management measuring instruments we have one densitometer and two spectrophotometers, all X-Rite. X-Rite have no certification labs in the UK and the only one in Europe is in Switzerland. Apart from costing an arm and a leg, this also takes 3-4 weeks to get them back! With the spectrophotometers we are able to work around this as we have two (although it's a real pain in the backside as it means moving the remaining one between machines that we recalibrate several times a day), but we only have one densitometer. Last year we were able to borrow a spare densitometer, but this year I am going to have to buy a spare - and then that one's going to have to be recertified once a year as well!
So my questions to you are: how do other small-medium commercial printers handle this? If you are in the UK, do you send your instruments off to Switzerland too, or have you found another way of recertifying in the UK?
I'm pretty sure that any UKAS certified printer will have to do the same??
Excluding "in-line" colour management measuring instruments we have one densitometer and two spectrophotometers, all X-Rite. X-Rite have no certification labs in the UK and the only one in Europe is in Switzerland. Apart from costing an arm and a leg, this also takes 3-4 weeks to get them back! With the spectrophotometers we are able to work around this as we have two (although it's a real pain in the backside as it means moving the remaining one between machines that we recalibrate several times a day), but we only have one densitometer. Last year we were able to borrow a spare densitometer, but this year I am going to have to buy a spare - and then that one's going to have to be recertified once a year as well!
So my questions to you are: how do other small-medium commercial printers handle this? If you are in the UK, do you send your instruments off to Switzerland too, or have you found another way of recertifying in the UK?