Why it is Important to Look at Artifact Calibration Shift Reports

Many papers have been written about the artifact calibration of the multifunction calibrator. National Measurement Institutes have published papers detailing their evaluations and making several suggestions of the actions required to adjust the calibrator without verifying at the time of the adjustment. National Instruments’ adopted one of the more conservative methods for proving the traceability of the calibrators. The calibrators are kept to either the 90 day specifications or the 1 year specifications. An artifact calibration is done at the designated interval, the shift report is reviewed and based on the shifts either the new calibration constants are stored, or if the shifts are too high, the calibrator is sent in for a full verification to determine if the calibrator is actually outside its specifications. The paper will explain in more detail exactly what we are looking for in the shift reports, and the actions we take when anomalies are found.