Accreditation of calibration laboratories to normative documents: diversity or standardization

Calibration of measuring equipment is conducted by following some normative or applicable documents such as standards, manufacturer manuals and instructions, technical orders issued by defense organizations, or scientific papers. An accreditation body provides its recognition to the calibration laboratories by evaluating their technical competence and their compliance with the quality requirements of ISO/IEC 17025. The accreditation body must have defined criteria in order to evaluate different calibration methods which should ensure that the laboratories are performing the calibration in a technically competent manner when they are fully or even only partially based on the relevant reference documents. A discussion with different points of view about choosing the criteria, as well as the Israel Laboratory Accreditation Authority (ISRAC) policy on this issue, are presented.Presented at the 2nd International Conference on Metrology – Trends and Applications in Calibration and Testing Laboratories, November 4–6, 2003, Eilat, Israel.