Calibration Essentials Part 2: Managing Your Calibration Program
This eBook explains strategies and tactics for managing and updating a process instrumentation calibration program in 23 detailed pages.
Calibration Essentials, eBook
Calibration Essentials is an informative eBook brought to you by ISA and Beamex.
In 60 detailed pages, it provides vital information about calibrating process instruments today.
Ultimate Calibration, 2nd edition eBook
19 articles, 203 pages.
Why calibrate and what are the risks of not calibrating? What is paperless calibration and how can it be managed? How can the total uncertainty of temperature calibration be calculated? Why must smart instruments be calibrated and how can this be done? How to calibrate safely in hazardous environments?
Do more with less and generate ROI with an integrated calibration solution
Process instrument calibration is just one of the many maintenance related activities in a process plant. The last thing you want to do is to have your limited resources wasting time performing unnecessary calibrations or using time consuming, ineffective calibration procedures.
This article discusses how to improve your calibration process with an integrated calibration solution.
Ohm's law - what it is and what an instrument tech should know about it
Ohm’s law it is helpful in many practical every-day situations, especially if you are an instrument technician. We often get questions that can be answered with an answer derived from the Ohm’s law.
The white paper discusses first about the theoretical side of it, and then take some practical instrumentation examples where you find this useful.
Uncertainty components of a temperature calibration using a dry block
Making a temperature calibration using a dry block seems like a pretty simple and straight forward thing to do, however there are many possible sources for uncertainty and error that should be considered. Often the biggest uncertainties may come from the procedure on how the calibration is done, not necessarily from the specifications of the components.
Read the white paper and learn about "dry blocks", EURAMET Guidelines and the uncertainty components.
AMS2750E Heat Treatment Standard and Calibration
In this article, we will take a short look at the AMS2750E standard, with a special focus on the requirements set for accuracy, calibration and test/calibration equipment.
Using Metrology Fundamentals in Calibration to Drive Long-Term Value
This article discusses some critical items to address for a calibration program based on sound metrology fundamentals without a complete overhaul of the calibration program. Having properly calibrated process control instrumentation provides a high quality of process control, a process that will operate to design specifications, and prevents the process from being stressed as it compensates for inaccurate measurement data feeding the DCS. Realization of these benefits may be challenging to quantify and attribute to implementing any of the suggested changes, but conversely, implementation of the changes should not be extraordinarily burdensome on resources.
Pt100 temperature sensor – useful things to know
The Pt100 temperature sensors are very common sensors in process industry. This article discusses many useful and practical things to know about the Pt100 sensors.
Read this white paper and learn about RTD sensors, PRT sensors, PRT versus thermocouple, Measuring RTD/PRT sensor, Measurement current, Self-heating etc.
Common data integrity pitfalls
Whether the calibration process is fully paper-based, or partially utilizing documenting calibrators, or even fully paperless, there are places in calibration processes where data integrity most commonly is jeopardized and needs special attention.
Download the free white paper and learn about the most common data integrity pitfalls in the calibration processes.
Calibration in hazardous areas
This article discusses calibration in hazardous areas and what everyone needs to be aware of before entering into a hazardous area with calibration equipment. Other topics covered are flammable and combustible liquids, definition of a hazardous
area, the types of industries where hazardous areas are found, the different levels of hazardous zones, regulations, equipment classification and various
other practical and related issues.
How to calibrate pressure gauges - 20 things you should consider
Pressure gauges are very common instruments in the process industry. As any instruments, pressure gauges need to be calibrated at regular intervals to assure that are accurate. There are many things that need to be considered when calibrating pressure gauges. This white paper discusses 20 things you should consider when calibrating pressure gauges.
Temperature units and temperature unit conversion
In this paper we discuss temperature, temperature scales, temperature units and temperature unit conversions.
Read this white paper and find out:
- What is temperature?
- International temperature scales and units
- Conversions between temperature units
- Bonus: Free and easy to use temperature unit converter
Thermocouple cold (reference) junction compensation
Thermocouples are very commonly used temperature sensors in processes. Thermocouples seem like very simple simple sensors to use, but the importance of the cold junction (reference junction) if too often forgotten and this causes error in the measurement.
Read this white paper and learn for example about:
- How does a thermocouple work?
- Thermocouple types and materials
- Thermocouple’s thermovoltage
- Seebeck coefficients
- Cold junction compensation methods
Data Integrity in Calibration Processes
As a concept, data integrity is by no means a new one, it has been around for several decades. Anyhow, in this article, we look at the data integrity more from the calibration process point of view, and focus mainly on the pharmaceutical and regulated industry. At first we take a look at the data integrity generally; what it is, why it is important and acute, what a breach could cause. Also, the ALCOA plus concept is briefly discussed.
Pressure Units and Pressure Unit Conversion
There is a lot of different pressure units in use around the world and sometimes this can be very confusing and may cause dangerous misunderstandings.
In this article we will discuss the basics of different pressure units and different pressure unit families.
Also, an online pressure unit conversion tool is presented.
Metrological Traceability in Calibration – Are you traceable?
What is metrological traceability in calibration and how you can be traceable?
This paper discusses what metrological traceability in calibration is and what you need to do in order to make your calibrations traceable.
In calibration, the metrological traceability is a fundamental consideration. If the calibrations you perform in your plant are not traceable, you don’t know if they are correct or not and therefore there is really no point in doing them.
Calibration Out of Tolerance (OoT) - What does it mean and what to do next?
Calibration Out of Tolerance – What does it mean and what to do next?
What is an OoT (Out of Tolerance) calibration, what does it mean and what you should do next if you run into an OoT situation? An out of tolerance calibration can have very dramatic effect, or no effect at all, depending on various parameters that are discussed in this paper.
The focus of this article is mainly for the world of process industry, but most of the principles are valid also elsewhere.
Calibration uncertainty for non-mathematicians
This paper discusses the basics of uncertainty in measurement and calibration. The paper is designed for people who are not mathematicians or metrology experts, but rather to people who are planning and making the practical measurements and calibrations in industrial applications.
Why calibrate - Reasons for calibration
Calibration is an essential activity in the process industries. This white paper discusses how periodical calibrations of process instruments and test equipment influence plant performance, safety, maintenance, sustainability and product quality.
ISO9001:2015 - what are the changes and how do they affect your calibration processes?
ISO9001 is the most popular Quality System standard world wide. The standard was revised in 2015. Is this white paper we discuss how the revision affects your calibration processes.
Improving power plant performance with a modern calibration process
Calibration is an essential activity in power plants and there are various reasons to establish a proper calibration process.
This article gives you a quick overview on calibration management in power plants.
Implementing a calibration system
Calibration system implementation is only about 20 to 30% technology, the rest is business culture and process change. The implementation is very time- and resource-consuming, and the risk of failure is high.
A behind the scenes look at a calibration process change
Implementing an overhaul to a company's calibration process will not happen overnight. The biggest problems are usually caused by poor planning and inadequate resourcing.
The system implementation process can be broken down into six defined steps presented in this white paper.
When to calibrate in a workshop
In today's process industry, field instruments are often calibrated out in the field. Field calibration is often the best solution, but there are still various reasons why it is sometimes more convenient and effective to do calibration in a workshop.
This white paper discusses the most common reasons for workshop calibration.
New methods for calibrating loops
Instrument technicians are following practices that were set up many years ago and it is not uncommon to hear, "this is the way we have always done it." Measurement technology continues to improve and is becoming both more accurate and complex.
By reading this white paper you will learn how to analyze loop error and walk through various loop testing examples including wireless/fieldbus, multivariable and more.
Calibrating WirelessHART transmitters
A modern transmitter is usually advertised as being smart and very accurate. Sometimes people may say that there is no need to calibrate smart transmitters.
The most common transmitter protocol today is the HART protocol. In this white paper, we will concentrate on WirelessHART transmitters.
How often should instruments be calibrated
Calibration is extremely important. If instruments at manufacturing plants drift out of their specification range, the consequences can be disastrous for the plant, resulting in costly production downtime, safety issues or possibly leading to batches of inferior quality goods. Still the time and resources for performing calibrations are often scarce.
The benefits of using a documenting calibrator
Documentation of the results is an essential element in every calibration. Documentation may be done manually using pen and paper, but it does not have to be! If you use documenting calibrator the documentation is done automatically.
Calibrating smart instruments
So called “smart” instruments are ever more popular in the process industry. A modern process transmitter typically outperforms an older type of conventional transmitter in measurement accuracy and stability. However, they bring new challenges to the calibration and configuration processes.