Noise dosimeter calibration
Noise dosimeters we calibrate
- Larson Davis — Spartan 730 and the earlier Spark series
- Casella — dBadge2 and dBadge Plus
- Svantek — SV 104, SV 102
- 3M / Quest — Edge series
- Cirrus Research doseBadge and doseBadge5, Pulsar Instruments, Brüel & Kjær
We are not an authorised service centre for any of these makers and have no commercial relationship with them. Calibration is performed against the standard, not against a manufacturer's procedure, so the make matters far less than the class of the instrument. If yours is not listed, ask — the list is what we see most, not a limit.
Turnaround
- Standard lead time
- 10 working days from receipt
- Express service
- Available on request, subject to laboratory schedule — quoted at booking
- Loan instrument during calibration
- On request, subject to availability
- Send with the instrument
- Accessories that affect the reading — preamplifier, extension cable, windscreen — and the date of the last calibration
Dosimeters carry the evidence in occupational health disputes. We calibrate them traceably — and we say plainly that this service sits outside our accredited scope.
Where the evidence gets challenged
A dosimeter result is rarely disputed while everything is going well. It is disputed years later, when a hearing loss claim is made and the question becomes what this worker was actually exposed to, and how anyone knows. At that point the measurement is only as strong as the calibration record behind it.
Two things decide whether it holds. First, the instrument must have been calibrated traceably, with a certificate covering the period in which the measurements were made — not one issued afterwards. Second, the field check before and after the shift must have been recorded, because a dosimeter worn for eight hours can be knocked, covered or tampered with, and the post-shift check is the only evidence it was still measuring at the end.
Said plainly, before you book
Dosimeter calibration is outside our ISO/IEC 17025 accredited scope. It is performed to the method with traceable references and the certificate states exactly that. For most occupational health programmes a traceable certificate is what is required and this is sufficient. If your regulator, insurer or corporate standard specifically demands an accredited calibration for dosimeters, we will tell you so at enquiry rather than after you have shipped the instruments.
Do you calibrate the acoustic calibrator used with the dosimeter too?
Yes, and you should send it. That calibration is inside our accredited scope even though the dosimeter calibration is not, which means the reference behind your field checks is the accredited part of the chain.
How many dosimeters should we own?
That is a question for your occupational health adviser, not for us — we measure instruments, we do not design monitoring programmes. What we can tell you is that organisations sending a single dosimeter for calibration have no measurement capability at all while it is here, and that is usually the practical constraint.