Are your sensors measuring right?

Ensuring that your application or process works properly is more important today than ever to avoid wasting time and / or money. All companies, large and small, nowadays have some kind of quality system to ensure quality products. Scheduled repairs, recurring service and calibration are an important part of securing your production and providing a secure future for the company.

Many times we get calls from customers who think that there is something wrong with their vacuum pump because the cycle time on their process has slowed down or that something in the production is not working. Most often it is not the pump that is broken, but it is your sensor that shows the wrong value. Of course, this affects the entire production and you lose time or money because your process is not working properly.

For example, our calibration manager, Niklas, was at a customer where it was suspected that there was some overall error in their system due to the deterioration of cycle time. Much of the production was depending on a certain value being achieved before the next step in the process could start, so it was important for the sensors to show correct measurement. When Niklas tested with a calibrated sensor on the system, it turned out that it was their sensor that gave faulty results. If the customer had continuously and regularly calibrated their sensors, they could have ensured that they got the right value and could saved time in the process.

Most companies today have quality requirements from their customers on products that the company manufactures. By calibrating their sensors, you gain increased control over the quality of the final product. In addition, some processes are so sensitive that a dirty sensor, or a sensor that shows errors, can affect the result so much that the product isn´t useful and simply must be discarded.

When calibrating a vacuum sensor, we determine the deviation in measured values between the instrument and a traceable normal. If you can quickly deduce a fault with, for example, a dirty sensor instead of always assuming that the pump is broken, you can save a lot of money. We can offer a traceable calibration from 1000 mbar – 1×10-5mbar. The interval you should have between the calibrations depends entirely on your process. If you have a clean process where the sensor does not become contaminated or dirty, then 1 year or more between calibrations is appropriate. Should you instead have a process with a lot of dust, oil or something else that can contaminate your sensors, the interval should be shortened to ensure that the sensor shows correctly.

We at Low2High Vacuum AB have our vacuum calibration method accredited by Swedac according to standard SS-EN ISO / IEC 17025: 2018. What does this accreditation mean? Yes, our method is checked annually by Swedac, which is a national accreditation body and an authority. The agency accredits laboratories, certification bodies and control bodies in accordance with international standards and regulations. Through our accreditation we give assurance to you as a customer that we can ensure our quality and the competence of our employees.