Gage pin calibration.

In a company with thousands of pin gages in multiple sets What is the best way to control calibration. The only options I know are as follows
1. have all sets calibrated(very costly)
2. verify with calibrated mic at each use and record on each order(hard to enforce. many will forget or just not do)
Any suggestions welcome

 

Thanks Andy. I ask the question question because your responce is exactly what I thought, However I had a outside pre auditor tell me that I had to have a record of what each pin used measured at.

 

I use gauge pins as reference only, much like gauge blocks. I send my blocks out once per 5 years for external calibration, and the other 4 years I calibrate them in-house using the CMM (which is NIST-traceable calibrated by 3rd party). Gauge pins are calibrated on a 3 yr cycle, using a NIST-traceable micrometer, with a resolution of 0.0001". Pins are calibrated to +0.0002'/-0

 

I like that idea! This method would work well on our gauge kits for recurring jobs.

 

Andy: I don't have them identified as 'For Reference Only', and would never use that statement during an audit to justify anything. I was only clarifying what we use them for - they are NOT issued out to production for use as gauges, etc. At the VERY most, they would be used to verify a setup dimension, and then immediately returned to the lab.

 

We have thousands of gage pins we use daily and we do them each use. We have the following certifications.... ISO 9001:2015, ISO 13485:2016, & AS9100 Rev D. For the documentation of the pins we check the pin on a calibrated micrometer or laser mic and have this as a pass or fail on our inspection plan. For the no-go pins we drop the pin size down .0001 or use a minus pin to account for the pin tolerance. Standard Deltronic Class X pins is the majority of what we use.