Sustainable metrology

Regular maintenance and calibration of measuring instruments prolongs their useful life.

When buying a measuring instrument, you may always wonder which one you would choose from the multitude of options on the market. For many people, the lowest price is often the first choice, and more rarely the maintenance, adjustment and calibration that the instrument allows in order to be used for as long as possible.

In our laboratory, sustainability definitely plays a big role in the purchase of measuring equipment. If we can regularly adjust and calibrate the instrument ourselves and have the manufacturer’s service, preferably in the EU, then we benefit greatly. We gain the most by not having to waste time adapting the software over and over again when replacing measuring equipment. We now have thousands of calibration drafts ready to go in our laboratory, and you can only imagine how much time is lost in adapting the software when changing instruments. Metrologists are also more successful in their work in the long run when using the same type of measuring equipment.

We have used a number of instruments in our laboratory for more than 25 years, some of which are still in use today. We are able to do this despite the recently lower quality production of measuring equipment.

We consider it very important that this also contributes to reducing the waste of measuring instruments. To further contribute to this, we have a metrology equipment museum at SIQ, which our visitors are eager to see. It is particularly interesting for young people who have grown up in the age of smartphones and apps.

But if a measuring instrument has to be thrown away, it is handed over to recycling companies, which can extract various materials for reuse.

As a contribution to sustainability, we are also optimising all our processes so that they are as digital and as paperless as possible. In the field of metrology, you can no longer get any paper documents, but only electronic ones with a digital signature.