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Calibration instruments recertification

lfelton

Well-known member
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?
 
You might want to discuss this with your ISO auditor, but the standard does not stipulate that an instrument shall undergo annual re-certification, but rather be calibrated or verified at specified intervals. There are other options than sending the instrument back to the manufacturer on an annual basis. Recertification has value, but often with a well cared for instrument, it offers little more than an invoice and inconvenience..

See this previous thread:

http://printplanet.com/forums/color-management/13365-calibrating-re-certifying-x-rite-densitometers
 
You might want to discuss this with your ISO auditor, but the standard does not stipulate that an instrument shall undergo annual re-certification, but rather be calibrated or verified at specified intervals. There are other options than sending the instrument back to the manufacturer on an annual basis. Recertification has value, but often with a well cared for instrument, it offers little more than an invoice and inconvenience..

See this previous thread:

http://printplanet.com/forums/color-management/13365-calibrating-re-certifying-x-rite-densitometers


Thank you very much, that's really helpful.
 
I worked in QC checking inks and we used an X-Rite spectrophotometer. I'm back in commercial printing now where we have many densitometers and spectrophotometers. It would be helpful to have a calibration plaque for all of them. We used, in the previous facility, a ceramic plaque with blue and brown patches on it. Perhaps that would suit in this present position.
Gage R&R is a quality/statistical method that would work. What does ISO say about this? What is the appropriate standard? "ISO 13656-2000 Graphic technology -- Application of reflection densitometry and colorimetry to process control or evaluation of prints and proofs" might have something to say about it, however I don't own that standard and have never read it.
What sort of color patches might be best to use for calibration? There was supposed to be something special about that brown, and it makes a bit of sense, theoretically. A ceramic patch would be desireable, as it's durable and stable.
This is an interesting, and important, question, thanks for the post.
 

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