Many customers do not consider the laboratory qualifications when reviewing the 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 the statement that they are "In Compliance" to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard. Accredited laboratories are reviewed annually for competence in their calibration field; accredited labs are subject to spot audits by the accreditation body and by 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 the 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 17025 standard they wish 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.

All dimensional inspections should be performed in a controlled environment at 68°F while holding 40% humidity as outlined per ISO/IEC 17025. Our laboratory at Bobier Metrology is a solid airlock enclosure utilizing 1µm HEPA filters; holding a constant temperature of 68°F +/- 0.5°F and the humidity is at 40% +/- 10%. To our knowledge we are only one of four labs in the United States with this capability that perform GD&T inspections. You'll have the confidence in knowing our results are precise & 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 Lab is maintained by security code entry guaranteeing each inspection performed by Bobier Metrology is confidential.

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 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 has state of the art measurement equipment to guarantee your measurement data is repeatable within microns.

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 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 customize our reports to meet 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.

A majority of labs base their pricing per dimension, so it's 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 will included our price based on 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 on laboratory qualifications, laboratory environment, type of equipment, data result formats, and lastly price.