Repair and instrument service

Traceable — not in accredited scope

What the accreditation does and does not cover

Accreditation covers calibration, never repair. ISO/IEC 17025 accredits a laboratory for testing and calibration competence, so no repair we carry out is inside the scope of certificate 24-LB0054 and no accreditation mark is ever applied to repair work. The repair is recorded and reported separately from the calibration certificate that follows it, and the certificate covers only the condition of the instrument once the work was finished.

An instrument that fails calibration is not automatically scrap. We diagnose, quote, repair and recalibrate — and we tell you honestly when a repair is not worth the money.

A failure and a fault are not the same thing

When a sound level meter comes back outside tolerance, the first question is not how to fix it but what actually moved. An instrument that has drifted slowly and uniformly across the frequency range is behaving normally for its age and often only needs adjustment. An instrument that is fine at 1 kHz and wrong at the extremes is telling you something different, and an instrument that fails only at high level or only on one weighting is telling you something different again. Repairing before you know which of those you have is how a working instrument becomes an expensive one.

This is why every instrument that arrives for repair is calibrated or functionally checked first. The measurement comes before the opinion. It also means that if the instrument turns out to be within tolerance after all — which happens more often than people expect, particularly when the original complaint came from a field comparison against another meter — you have a calibration certificate rather than a repair bill.

What we see most often

Microphone damage. The measurement microphone is the most exposed and most delicate part of the chain. Moisture, dust, a dropped instrument or a windscreen left off in the field all show up as a change at high frequency long before anyone notices it on the display.
Preamplifier and connector faults. Intermittent readings, noise that comes and goes when the cable is moved, or a level that shifts when the instrument is handled.
Calibrator drift. A sound calibrator is itself a measuring instrument. A meter that appears to have drifted is sometimes a meter being checked against a calibrator that has drifted.
Battery and contact problems. Corrosion at the battery contacts is one of the most common causes of erratic behaviour in instruments that spend time in humid conditions, which in Thailand is all of them.
Physical and display damage. Cracked windows, failed keypads, broken tripod mounts — cosmetic in appearance, but they decide whether an instrument is still usable on site.

A repair invalidates the certificate that came before it

This is the part that gets missed, and it is the part that costs people work. A calibration certificate describes an instrument in a particular condition on a particular date. Open the instrument, replace a component, adjust it, and that description no longer applies. The certificate is not merely old — it is void. Any measurement made afterwards on the strength of it is unsupported, and if that measurement went into a compliance report, a tender submission or an expert opinion, it is exposed.

So every repair here ends with a calibration, not with a functional test. The instrument leaves with a current certificate describing what it does now, and with a service record stating what was changed. If you are audited, that pair of documents is the answer.

What is and is not accredited here

Repair is a technical service and is not itself an accredited activity — no laboratory accreditation covers the act of replacing a component. The calibration that follows the repair is a different matter: for sound level meters, sound calibrators and measurement microphones it falls inside our ISO/IEC 17025 accredited scope, certificate 24-LB0054. For dosimeters, vibration transducers and preamplifiers the post-repair calibration is traceable but outside that scope. We state which applies on the certificate, every time.

Instrument received and logged
Incoming inspection and condition report
Calibration or functional check to establish what is actually wrong
Fault identified and repair quoted — no work starts before you approve
Repair carried out
Final calibration after repair
Instrument returned with certificate and service record

When we will tell you not to repair it

We have no stake in the outcome. We do not sell instruments, so a repair quotation from us is not a step towards selling you a replacement. That independence is the whole reason to ask us.

The repair cost approaches the value of an equivalent working instrument.
The fault is in a part that is no longer obtainable, so the repair cannot be completed to a state we would certify.
The instrument can be made to work but not brought back inside its class tolerance — a Class 1 meter that can only be returned as a Class 2 performer is not a Class 1 meter, and we will not certify it as one.
The instrument has a history of repeated faults, which usually means the next failure is already on its way.

What to send with the instrument

The microphone and preamplifier that are normally used with it. A sound level meter is calibrated as the combination you actually measure with, not as a body on its own.
The sound calibrator you check it against in the field, if you have one. It is often the real cause, and calibrating both together removes the doubt.
The previous calibration certificate, if you have it. Comparing against the last result is how drift is distinguished from a fault.
A short description of what you observed. "Reads 3 dB low against our other meter" is far more useful to a technician than "not working".
Windscreen, cables and any accessory whose condition could affect the reading.

Do you repair instruments you did not supply?

Yes. We are a laboratory, not a distributor — we do not sell the instruments we test and calibrate, so where you bought it makes no difference to us. Multi-brand acoustic and vibration measurement instruments are what we handle.

Will you start work without asking me first?

No. The fault is identified and quoted, and nothing is opened or replaced until you approve the quotation. If the diagnosis changes what we expected, you hear about it before the cost does.

My meter disagrees with a colleague's meter. Is one of them broken?

Not necessarily. Two instruments can both be within tolerance and still differ, particularly at the extremes of the frequency range or at low levels near the noise floor. The only way to settle it is to calibrate them — which is cheaper than repairing the wrong one.

Can I get a loan instrument while mine is here?

On request and subject to availability. Tell us at the time of booking rather than after the instrument has arrived, because availability is the constraint.

Instrument received and logged
Incoming inspection and condition report
Calibration or functional check to establish what is actually wrong
Fault identified and repair quoted — no work starts before you approve
Repair carried out
Final calibration after repair
Instrument returned with certificate and service record