Comparing Laboratories

COMPARING DIMENSIONAL INSPECTION LABORATORY - QUOTATIONS

    COMPARING LAB TO LAB

     Many customers only consider price when selecting a laboratory to perform a
     dimensional inspection of their manufactured parts, even more so during these
     times of tough economic pressures. At Bobier Metrology we agree price is a key
     factor, but it's not the only factor when comparing dimensional inspection
     quotations. Most importantly you want to make sure you are comparing
     laboratory to laboratory.

There are five key factors to review when accurately comparing dimensional inspection quotations; Laboratory Qualifications, Laboratory Environment, Type of Equipment, Data Result Formats, and lastly Price.

LABORATORY QUALIFICATIONS
  Many customers do not consider the laboratory qualifications when review quotations.
   You wouldn't hire an employee if they didn't meet some form of standard set forth by your
   company? So why would you send your manufactured parts to a laboratory that doesn't
   meet the industry standard? All laboratories quoting should be "Accredited" to ISO/IEC
   17025 standard. Several laboratories get by with a statement that they are
   "In Compliance" to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard. Accredited laboratories are reviewed
   annually for competence in their calibration field; accredited laboratories are subject to spot audits by the accreditation body and their customers. Equipment utilized by accredited laboratories must be traceable to the National Institute of Standards Technology (N.I.S.T), with each individual piece of equipment being directly linked to N.I.S.T traceable number. These practices allow the customer to have confidence in the data results obtained by the accredited laboratory, ensuring that they followed industry standards. Labs that are "In Compliance" can easily choose which portions of the ISO/IEC standard they wish to comply with. There are no means for which the customer can be confident that all practices stated in the ISO/IEC 17025 standard are being enforced and followed throughout the inspection process.

    LABORATORY ENVIRONMENT

     All dimensional inspections should be performed in a controlled environment at 68 degrees
     fahrenheit while holding 40% humidity as outlined per ISO/IEC 17025. Our laboratory at
     Bobier Metrology Solutions is a solid airlock enclosure utilizing 1 micron HEPA filters;
     holding a constant temperature of 68 degrees fahrenheit +/- 0.5 degrees fahrenheit and
     humidity is at 40% +/- 10%. To our knowledge we are only one of four laboratories in the
     United States with this capability that perform GD&T inspections. You'll have the confidence
     in knowing our results are precise and accurate. Additionally, our laboratory is security
     controlled. Parts are handled by laboratory trained personnel only, and are stored discreetly
     out of view of the public and/or visitors. Our laboratory is maintained by security code entry
     guaranteeing each inspection performed by Bobier Metrology Solutions is confidential.

      TYPE OF EQUIPMENT

      Has the laboratory quoted the appropriate equipment to use to
      perform your dimensional inspection? Many customers overlook
      the fact that dimensional data can be obtained using several
      different approaches. However, each approach has its own level
      of uncertainty when obtaining dimensional data. Sure, it's a lot less
      expensive to to measure a distance on digital caliper than on a
      coordinate measuring machine (CMM), but you have much greater
      accuracies and repeatability when utilizing a CMM over a digital
      caliper. Bobier Metrology Solutions has state of the art measurement
      equipment to guarantee your measurement data is repeatable
      within microns.

     DATA RESULT FORMATS

      Many times inspection data result formats are overlooked during the quotation process,
      leaving the customer stuck with a list of numbers being unable to relate the data back to
      their manufactured part and/or print. Bobier Metrology Solutions offers several standard data
      formats including color error maps and pictures of the part with the dimensions ballooned per
      each feature measured. We also have the capability to customized our reports to meet your
      customer specific requests. You can be assured that all data formats are in a logical format
      matching your CAD or supplied print. Bobier Metrology also supplies the customer with FREE
      phone support to aid in data interpretation.

     PRICE

     A majority of labs base their pricing per dimension, so its equally important to make sure each
     laboratory has quoted the same amount of dimensions to be inspected. Every laboratory should
     supply within their written quotation the number of dimensions to be inspected and a datum
     scheme for the inspection. Every quotation presented by Bobier Metrology Solutions will include our
     price based on the number of dimensions and a clear datum scheme. We also have hourly rate
     quotes available upon request.

Once all the information has been obtained, the customer then should be able to pick the appropriate laboratory to perform their dimensional inspection based upon the laboratory qualifications, laboratory environment, type of equipment, data result formats, and lastly price.