Matthew Gypps – Technical & Compliance Manager, TRESCAL UK & Ireland
As a multinational calibration organisation, Trescal welcomes the revision of ISO 6789:2017 and the continuous development of ISO standards in general.
When the 2017 version of ISO 6789 was released, some of the new requirements, compared with the previous 2003 version, caused a number of issues within the metrology industry. New technical requirements not only meant that significant investment was required for machines with improved capability, but in the UK region, UKAS stipulated that:
“All UKAS laboratories currently accredited to perform the calibration of hand torque tools to BS EN ISO 6789:2003 will be expected to transition to BS EN ISO 6789-2:2017” and that all laboratories will be expected to have transitioned to BS EN ISO 6789-2:2017 by 29 March 2019.”
The requirement for customers to provide additional information, such as the “Measurement uncertainty interval”, of which many had limited knowledge, resulted in a number of requests for calibration to the previous version. However, due to the UKAS stipulation, many calibration companies chose not to proceed with accreditation to the new standard and therefore had to suspend accredited torque calibration capability. This in turn actually reduced the number of accredited calibrations taking place.
When discussing these issues with technical teams in other countries in the Trescal group, we quickly established that other national accreditation bodies had not stipulated the same requirements or timescales as UKAS. Several countries were permitted to continue to perform accredited calibration against ISO 6789:2003, while others were still awaiting advice from national accreditation bodies as late as November 2018.
In the UK we are not permitted to offer a certificate of calibration against part 1 of the standard; only a declaration of conformance can be issued. However, in France, companies were able to be accredited to both part 1 and part 2 and can issue a certificate for either. This makes it difficult for international customers to receive the same calibration service in different countries, even for the same tool type.
Having invested significantly in our torque capability across the UK, Ireland, Germany, Singapore and Australia since 2018, we very much hope that the introduction of the new standard can be achieved without further investment. Whilst most of the technical and customer requirements remain for good reason, we welcome the reduction in the number of measurements, which will help calibration companies perform the calibration faster and return instruments to customers with a reduced turnaround time.
It will be interesting to witness the final developments of the standard, and we are pleased that UK calibration companies have been invited to take part in the “round robin” exercise and to have the opportunity to provide our feedback.
Trescal hopes that the revised standard will be interpreted by all national accreditation bodies in the same way and that equal requirements will be insisted upon for all calibration providers within similar timescales. This is essential to enable multinational companies, such as those in the aerospace industry who require calibration of hand torque tools to the ISO 6789 standard, to receive the same certification irrespective of where the calibration is performed.
