Calibration is the clause most shops believe they have covered. There is a list, there are stickers, and the certificates are in a binder. Yet measuring equipment produces findings year after year, in small shops and large ones, from registrars and from customers. The patterns are almost always the same:
- The list answers the wrong question. It says when each gauge is due. It does not say what the gauge measures, so when one fails nobody can say which parts are in question.
- Out of tolerance means 'adjusted and returned'. The certificate shows an as-found error, the gauge is adjusted, the sticker is renewed, and the product it accepted for months is never looked at.
- Inspection records do not name the instrument. 'Micrometer, OK' is all the record says, so the trace from a failed gauge to the parts it accepted stops at the first page.
- Instruments outside the system. Employee-owned tools, customer-supplied gauges, setting masters and the gauge in a drawer on second shift are not on the recall list.
- Calibrated but not capable. The gauge reads true on a gauge block, but its resolution is too coarse for the tolerance, or two inspectors get different answers on the same part. No study exists.
- Intervals nobody chose. Every instrument is on twelve months because that is what the first list said, and nobody reads the as-found data that would say otherwise.
- Certificates nobody reads. The lab's certificate arrives, is filed, and nobody checks whether it shows as-found data, traceability or an uncertainty, or whether the lab's scope covers the work.
None of these is solved by a better sticker. They are solved by a register that links each instrument to what it measures, a method for the day a calibration fails, evidence that each critical gauge is fit for its job, and a short, regular review. That is what this kit gives you.
A word on scope. This handbook covers the instruments and measurement systems used to accept product or control processes: hand tools, gauges, masters, CMMs and vision systems, torque tools, test equipment, and the software that runs them. It does not replace your calibration laboratory's own procedures, and it does not reproduce any standard's text; the clause numbers point you to your own copy of AS9100D.
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A management aid, not certification or a registrar audit. Using it does not by itself show conformity to AS9100D or any other standard, and your customers' requirements may add to it.
Clause numbers refer to AS9100D (SAE AS9100 Rev D) unless another document is named. The standards' text is not reproduced here: use your own licensed copy.
Aegis Insights are our own guidance, labeled wherever they appear: how we approach this work, not a requirement of any standard or customer.