DC Power Supply Calibrations

[cherrmann47]

What is the 3rd party calibration industry currently doing for power supply calibrations? Agilent as an example calibrates their power supplies for Constant Voltage, Constant Current, Line Regulation, Load Regulation, Transient Response, and PARD.  This seems to me that this is a little overkill in the industry however if customers/consumers are expecting the same calibration as what the OEM's are supplying; are the 3rd party calibration companies have the ability to perform the same calibration as the OEM's.

[MRD]

I'd hope that 3rd party calibration companies are calibrating the units to manufacturer specifications if that's what they are being paid to do, expecially if they are listing the calibration procedure as the manufacturer's manual or specifications.  Anything less than that would be calibrating the unit to the process and then the equipments owner/payee would have to accept that a complete calibration isn't being performed/needed.

[Bryan]

What is the 3rd party calibration industry currently doing for power supply calibrations?
Some test them and issue calibration certificates, some only the latter.
Seems that unless the user specifies a requirement you would be obligated to test them as closely to the oem as practical, you never know what some people are doing with the stuff.

[ck454ss]

What is the 3rd party calibration industry currently doing for power supply calibrations?
Some test them and issue calibration certificates, some only the latter.
Seems that unless the user specifies a requirement you would be obligated to test them as closely to the oem as practical, you never know what some people are doing with the stuff.

Not true.  According to the ISO 17025 spec I need to have a procedure in order to calibrate something and as long as I follow my procedure(right or wrong) I am following the requirements.  Ultimately it is the CUSTOMERS responsibility to ensure that what they need calibrated on any piece of equipment is being calibrated.  The main issue I find is that the customer doesnt have a clue what needs to be calibrated on equipment because they dont understand the Measurement Systems they are using.

When I look for a 3rd party house I ask to review there cal procedures for the equipment I want to get calibrated by them to be sure they are calibrating the functions I use.