CTS Calibration - Frequently Asked Questions

Calibration - Frequently Asked Questions

What is the German Calibration Service (DKD)?
Within the system of the German Calibration Service (DKD), calibration laboratories of industrial firms, research institutes, technical authorities and inspection/testing institutions carry out calibration work. These laboratories are accredited and supervised by the accreditation body of the German Calibration Service.

What does calibration mean?
Calibration is the determination of the interrelationships between the stated values of a measuring instrument (measuring device/material measure/material measure/value of a reference material) and those values determined by exact standards.

The calibration certificate contains the measured value including the specification of the respective measurement uncertainty. If necessary it can be stated if a tolerance limit is observed or not.

What are DKD calibrations?
DKD calibrations are carried out for measuring instruments, reference materials and material measures for the measurement categories and ranges specified within the framework of the accreditation. DKD calibration certificates issued are proof of measurement traceability to national or international standards as required in the family of standards DIN EN ISO 9000 and DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025.

What is an accreditation?
This is a procedure used by an authorized body (e.g. the Accreditation Body of the DKD) to issue formal acknowledgment of the competence of a body or a person to fulfill certain tasks.

What is the purpose of an accreditation?
Calibrations carried out by DKD laboratories allow the user to trust the reliability of measurement results. They increase customer confidence and competitiveness on national and international markets. They also serve as a technical measurement basis for the control of measurement and test equipment within the framework of quality management.

How long is DKD accreditation valid?

What is a standard?
Standard (VIM): "Material measure, measuring instrument, reference material or measuring system intended to define, realize, conserve or reproduce one unit or one or more values."

What is a national standard?
A standard which has been approved by national decision of a country as the basis for the determination of values of all other standards of the respective measurement (SI unit).

What is a reference standard?
A standard, generally of highest available accuracy (at a given place or at an organization), from which measurements carried out (there) can be derived.

What is traceability?
It is the procedure of tracing measurement results by an unbroken chain of calibrations to the national standard and thus to the respective SI units.

What is a DKD assessment?
A number of activities, always including a visit to the laboratory in addition to a review of documentation (carried out at regular intervals by the DKD Accreditation Body), in order to ensure that the accredited laboratories work according to the accreditation criteria. The interval between initial assessment and (complete) reassessment is currently 5 years.

What is DKD surveillance?
An on-site visit of the accredited calibration laboratories carried out by the Accreditation Body to ensure that these laboratories work according to the requirements. These visits are not normally as comprehensive as an initial assessment or to a (complete) reassessment.

What does conformity mean?
Fulfillment of determined requirements by a product, a process or a service.

What is measurement?
An experimental procedure in which a specific value of a physical quantity is determined as a multiple of a unit (or of a reference standard).

What is a measurand?
A physical quantity recorded by measurement
(e. g. density, length, mass, current, temperature).

What does measurement uncertainty mean?
Parameter assigned to the measurement result, characterizing the dispersion of values (reasonably) capable of being assigned to a measured.

Please refer to www.ptb.de or www.dkd.eu for more detailed information on the activities of the PTB (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt) and the DKD (German Calibration Service).

Accreditation of DKD laboratories is based on the rules and procedures of the German Calibration Service (DKD) as defined in DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025. Due to amendments in the standard (version 08/2005), all laboratories will undergo assessment for compliance to the amended version of the standard by 15th May 2007 within the framework of monitoring visits.
DKD accreditation certificates have no expiry date. Continual compliance to accreditation conditions is checked and confirmed by the Accreditation Body through regular monitoring. Non-compliance of the conditions means withdrawal of accreditation with the calibration laboratory being struck from the listing.

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