An essential part of our activities is the calibration of reference standards and instrumentation. It is particularly important to ensure that calibration is performed against standards with sufficient margins of accuracy relative to that of the equipment being calibrated, and to employ appropriate methods of calibration to suit the requirements. A calibration performed at SP makes it directly traceable to the Swedish national standards at the highest level of accuracy. This is an area in which SP's long experience is of great value, as is its guarantee that calibration has been performed against traceable standards. A fundamental concept in quality assurance is the calibration of measuring instruments.
Calibration is a word which is sometimes misunderstood.
Calibration of an instrument means determining by how much the instrument reading is in error by checking it against a measurement standard of known error. A calibration is thus not usually associated with approval. As a consequence, it is up to the user to decide whether the equipment is sufficiently good to perform a certain measurement. One possibility is to have the instrument certified. We can always offer good advice if needed.