Calibration due date

[John Hager]

We just purchased a new PXI-6230 DAQ card, SN#1310626.  The last calibration date was December 2007.  Will I need to get this calibrated before it's first used?  I can usually push them out a little bit but I never saw one that was calibrated this long ago.

thanks,

John

[Seth_B.]

Hello John,

Did you purchase this card from NI?  If so, could you provide me with an order number?  The records for that serial number indicate that it was shipped on July 25th, 2008 so that calibration date makes sense.

You will definitely want to get the card calibrated.  Calibration for the PXI-6230 is only guaranteed for 12 months, so the card is quite likely out of calibration by now, possibly by quite a bit.

[SnowMule]

Depends on what you're doing with it, the accuracy/traceability you need from it, and whether or not you need to follow ISO/etc standards. 

Here, if the equipment's being used to validate products that go out the door, it better be in cal.

However, Engineering has a pile of equipment we choose not to calibrate for whatever reason (mostly $$).  That has a "Not Calibrated" sticker on it - For Eng/R&D it's fine as long as you understand the device might not be in spec.

We recently geared up for ISO certification, as a result of that there's equipment that hadn't been calibrated in 10+ years.  Most of it was still in spec, the stuff that wasn't was either totally broken or still close enough for our measurements. 

So it's really up to you to decide whether or not it needs to go out for cal.

[John_P1]

NI also has released a calibration procedure for that product if you have the necessary hardware and want to perform the calibration yourself.

Best Regards,