The most simple answer is the following: A unit must be calibrated in order to confirm the readings and data you collect are accurate and correct.

Due to environmental conditions and the handling of an instrument, a unit will lose accuracy over time. Typically the more extreme the conditions or handling the more this is a concern, but even a device that is in moderate conditions and lightly handled is susceptible to losing accuracy.

Your Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) or the organization that audits your company may also require that you calibrate your instruments at regular intervals (six months to one year are common).

Timely and regular calibrations ensure your instruments are reading correctly and protecting the safety of those who use your products.

Next month's topic: Why Should I trust Dickson to do my Calibration?

If you attend Ball State University and are graduating soon (or you’ve graduated aleeady) stop by the career fair in the Alumni Center and chat with us.

We heard that feedback and decided to do something about it! We are building out a dedicated A2LA and NIST Certified laboratory with the specialized equipment necessary to meet our customers’ needs. We’ll have dedicated calibration technicians who will work with the units and make sure they are calibrated in a timely and correct manner.

To provide better documentation for our customers we’ll also be building a calibration and repair database that will track a unit while it is at Dickson for calibration and/or repair. This will integrate seamlessly with our website and user accounts. The database will allow users to view their monitoring units’ calibration history, upcoming calibrations, calibration certificates, and allow customers to set up reminders for their devices. It will be a great tool and resource for customers as well as provide some transparency for Dickson.

If you have any questions about calibration, feel free to contact us via email or by phone!
 

UPDATED: Added link about our new calibration lab post

Here's the detail from the column:

Dickson announces the release of the FT520 touchscreen data system. This instrument allows pharmacists to interact with their data via a 4.1˜ x 5.5˜ touchscreen display that has full-graphing capabilities, including customizable graphic display or digital display of temperature and humidity data readings, as well as minimums and maximums. In addition, pharmacists can choose to download the data via USB interface or Flash card. This model takes measurements in both Fahrenheit and Celsius and comes with rechargeable battery backup and a K-Thermocouple probe.

It has been a great show so far, with tons of great conversations about our products and their use within the Blood Banking industry. Here's a short video we put together highlighting the show and one of the products we've been talking about quite a bit.

The product we've been talking about the most is the Report Loggers (RL's). These are great for storage and transportation needs as they are compact, inexpensive, and does not require software (it is built into the device!).

If you're in the San Diego area and you have questions about your monitoring needs, stop by (we're booth 1736). 

The people attending the show include other manufacturers, but a lot of pharmaceutical companies looking for venders and suppliers of materials and equipment. Puerto Rico is home to many manufactures of different products, but the pharmaceuticals and cosmetic companies have a very clear pressence on the island. Nick briefly talks about the customers and our products in our video below.

If you are in Puerto Rico, for Interphex or otherwise, stop by our booth today. We are booth 1322 (to the right when you walk in the main doors). We'd love to discuss your application and how our products can fit within your process(es).

The booth debuted at the Pack Expo 2011 in Las Vegas just last week. It appears to have been a hit as the show was a good one.

Dickson maintains an active trade show schedule throughout the year, so you can be sure to check out our full product line (and our new booth) at a number of shows.

Upcoming places to see Dickson: Interphex 2011 Puerto Rico (Oct 20-21) and AABB Annual Meeting & CTTXPO 2011 (Oct 23-26).