Calibration and traceability compliant with IATF 16949

The first edition of the ISO/TS 16949 standard (predecessor to IATF 16949) at the end of the 1990s led to new requirements for the metrological traceability of the test equipment used. Coordinate measuring machines are particularly suitable for monitoring and calibrating this test equipment. In the automotive industry in particular, this led to the demand for accredited calibration of coordinate measuring machines. The use of calibrated calibration standards enables traceability to international standards. In 2003, the DKD guideline DKD-R 4-3 Sheet 18.1 (DKD – Deutscher Kalibrierdienst) was published and the first accreditations of laboratories for tactile coordinate measuring machines followed. In 2004, Werth Messtechnik was the first German laboratory to be accredited by the DKD for the calibration of optical and multisensor coordinate measuring machines. The procedures for coordinate measuring machines with optical probes described in VDI 2617 Sheet 6 were developed with significant collaboration from Werth Messtechnik.
The laboratory has been continuously active since then, and the procedures mentioned have been further developed and expanded. In 2011, the Werth-DAkkS laboratory (DAkkS – German Accreditation Body) was the first and, until 2018, only facility of its kind to be accredited for the calibration of coordinate measuring machines with computed tomography sensors according to VDI/VDE 2617 Sheet 13. In 2019, the conversion to the current version of ISO 17025:2017 took place as part of a re-accreditation.