Carbon

Gauges and calibration

Track measurement instruments, schedule their calibrations, and flag any gauge that falls out of calibration.

A is a controlled measurement instrument, such as a caliper, micrometer, pin gauge, or CMM. Carbon assigns each gauge a recurring schedule and marks it out of calibration when overdue. Each calibration is a dated record, preserving the gauge's history.

Gauges are part of the quality module. An inspection can record which gauge measured each characteristic.

The gauge record

Add a gauge under Quality → Gauges. Each gauge belongs to a gauge type (Caliper, Micrometer, Pin Gauge, Surface Plate, CMM, and so on) and carries a calibration schedule. A fresh company ships with about twenty pre-seeded gauge types; add your own with just a name.

FieldType
A human-readable identifier (like G-001). Leave it blank and Carbon assigns the next one from a sequence.
The gauge type — a caliper, micrometer, pin gauge, and so on. Required.
Either Master or Standard. A is the reference you calibrate other gauges against; a Standard gauge is one you use for routine checks. Required.
How many months between calibrations. This drives the next-due date. Minimum 1; defaults to 6.
A free-text description of the instrument.
The manufacturer's model number.
The instrument's serial number.
The supplier the gauge was acquired from.
When you acquired the gauge.
When the gauge was last calibrated. Carbon sets this from the newest calibration record.
When the gauge is next due. Carbon recomputes this as last calibration date + interval each time you log a calibration.
Which location the gauge lives at.
Which storage unit holds it.

A gauge has status Active or Inactive. Deactivate a gauge to preserve its calibration history; inactive gauges are treated as out of calibration. Delete only gauges without calibration history.

The calibration schedule

Set the gauge's calibration interval in months. When you record a calibration, Carbon sets that date as the last calibration date and calculates the next due date by adding the interval. For example, a gauge calibrated on January 1 with a six-month interval is due July 1.

The interval and the last calibration date together are the whole schedule. Change the interval and the next calibration you log recomputes the due date from it.

Recording a calibration

Each time a gauge is calibrated, log it as a calibration record under Quality → Calibrations. The record is the evidence: who signed off, against what standard, under what conditions, and the actual readings taken.

FieldType
The gauge being calibrated. Required.
The date of the calibration. This becomes the gauge's last calibration date and the anchor for the next-due date. Required.
Recorded that follow-up is needed after this calibration.
Recorded that the gauge was adjusted during calibration.
Recorded that the gauge needs repair.
The reading pairs taken during calibration — each is a reference value and the actual value measured against it.
The traceable reference the readings were compared against (a NIST standard, a master gauge serial, and so on).
The ambient temperature during calibration, in degrees Celsius.
The ambient humidity during calibration, as a fraction from 0 to 1.
The supplier that performed the calibration, if it was done externally.
The user who approved the calibration.
Free-form notes on the calibration.

The three requires fields determine the result. If any is selected, the calibration Fails. If all are clear, it Passes. Recording the result updates the gauge's calibration status.

NOTE

A gauge keeps every calibration

Logging a calibration never overwrites the last one. Each record is a dated row, and the gauge shows them newest-first. What the gauge summarizes from them is the latest calibration date and the resulting status.

Calibration status and going overdue

A gauge carries a calibration status with three values, and Carbon sets it for you.

Off-track
In-Calibration
The most recent calibration passed and the next-due date is still in the future. The gauge is trustworthy.

Calibration status is derived, not manually assigned. A passing result sets In-Calibration; a failing result sets Out-of-Calibration. Carbon also reports any inactive or overdue gauge as Out-of-Calibration, regardless of its stored result.

HEADS UP

Overdue is computed, not stored

You never mark a gauge overdue. The out-of-calibration reading for a past-due or inactive gauge is derived at read time from the next-due date, so it flips on its own the day the schedule lapses. Bringing it back is a matter of logging a fresh passing calibration.

Carbon can also nudge you before things lapse. A scheduled job checks for gauges going out of calibration and notifies the people you've listed for calibration-expiry alerts in company settings, so an overdue gauge doesn't sit unnoticed.

Quality

Issues, corrective-action workflows, and inbound inspection.