John, oh, and John, sounds kind of like a Presidential election ??
Anyway, one of the shops we regularly do inspections at has a Fabricators Certification from one of the organizations, I believe AISC but am not positive. They ask their floor guys to regularly check their tapes against a 'Certified, Calibrated, and/or Approved' in some fashion, alum 4 ft straight edge hanging on the tool room wall. When they do so they put a sticker on their tape and date it. This helps insure they have not bent the end of the tape. If the first 4 ft are good, they figure the whole thing is close enough for 'FABRICATION'.
I believe they do a more complete calibration for their QC tapes. They were preparing for an audit last time I was there and told all floor personnel to make sure their tapes had current stickers.
While organizations have different standards as a base line, doesn't part of this also come down to the type of work the shop does, the type of certification it has, and how their QC program is set up, administered, and approved by the agency that certified them?
Just a thought from observations made.
Have a Great Day, Brent
Brent,
Yes indeed the QC program may actually set higher standards than are required by, say IAS or AISC. Much like safety programs will often say they "Meet or exceed OSHA requirements".
Under higher usage environments the stickers may end up worn off completely or have the ink rubbed off so I found it more effective to engrave the employee # on when it is issued and keep a log. The log will reflect when a new tape is issued. Of course for some situations this is not necessary.
"While organizations have different standards as a base line, doesn't part of this also come down to the type of work the shop does, the type of certification it has, and how their QC program is set up, administered, and approved by the agency that certified them?"
That a big 10-4. :-)
If the first 4 ft are good, they figure the whole thing is close enough for 'FABRICATION'. This is generally what I do as well and sometimes only the first 2'.
As long as the verification procedure is written out and the agency that one is accredited through (IAS AISC) approves it, it is fine.
jrw159