Calibration management software for a Part 145 shop

Good calibration management software answers one question before a job starts: is this tool in calibration today? AirOne keeps a live register rather than a wall chart. Every gauge, wrench and test set carries its due date and its certificate on file. Then the job task reads that register before anyone signs.

What calibration management software has to hold

14 CFR 145.109(b) covers every test and inspection tool behind an airworthiness determination. A repair station must calibrate those tools to a standard the FAA accepts. EASA 145.A.40(b) adds the record: each calibration, and traceability to the standard used. So a due date per tool is not enough.

In AirOne every calibrated tool sits in one register with its due date and its certificate on file. An auditor reads one row instead of a wall chart, a binder and somebody’s inbox.

Calibration intervals and due-date alerts

The calibration interval is the shop’s decision, in writing. 14 CFR 145.211(c) asks the quality control manual to say how the shop calibrates its test equipment, and at what intervals. The rule fixes no number. So the interval lives in the manual, and the register holds the due date it produces.

Alerts arrive before the due date, so the shop can book a tool out while the bays are quiet.

Out-of-cal tools blocked from job tasks

When a work order task calls for a calibrated tool, it reads the register first. An overdue tool cannot go on the sign-off. The engineer sees the block on the job. This is the part of calibration management software a spreadsheet cannot copy.

The block also caps the recall window. When a tool comes back out of tolerance, the shop has to find every job it touched since its last good calibration. Then it reviews each release. Without the block, that window runs past the due date until somebody notices. With it, the window ends on the due date.

Calibration management software keeps the certificate with the tool

Each certificate sits against the tool it certifies, so nobody searches a second folder. That turns calibration certificate storage from a filing question into audit evidence.

Retention is the harder question. 14 CFR 145.219(c) sets the FAA floor for the records that show part 43 compliance. They stay at least two years after the article’s return to service. It names no separate period for calibration certificates. But a certificate shows which calibration stood behind a release. So it belongs with the tool’s history as long as those releases do. Our post on Part 145 record-keeping for component shops covers the wider record set.

Calibration management software vs a spreadsheet

A spreadsheet tells the truth only on the day somebody edits it. Meanwhile tools move, engineers borrow them, and the calibration house runs late. Calibration tracking software updates as those things happen. So the shop reads one status instead of three opinions.

The honest drawback of any calibration management software: the register is only as good as the receiving step. If a tool comes back from the calibration house and nobody records it, the block still holds. That is annoying on a busy morning. It is also the point.

Tool tracking software and gage tracking: where this register stops

Tool tracking software usually means a tool crib: check-out, check-in and a count at shift end. Gage tracking software comes from the machine shop. There, gage repeatability and reproducibility (gage R&R) and measurement uncertainty are part of the job. AirOne does neither. It keeps the calibration register, the certificates and the block on job tasks. It does not run the calibration itself or compute uncertainty. Serial history for the parts themselves lives in parts traceability. For tool control on the bench, see the blog’s tool calibration category.

What the calibration management software register actually records

Every tool in the register carries more than a due date. It holds its internal tag, its serial number, its location and shelf, its permissible error limits and any usage limitation. An interval in months sits on the tool, twelve by default. From that interval AirOne works out the status each time somebody looks: overdue once the due date passes, due soon inside thirty days.

The calibration record underneath is stricter. It stores the certificate number, the standard applied, the as-found and as-left results, the uncertainty the laboratory reported, and that laboratory’s accreditation body and number. Then it closes on a decision: pass, pass after adjustment, limited use, out of tolerance or failed. Signing freezes the record, and the signature cannot come from the person who drafted it. An out-of-tolerance decision therefore opens an impact assessment rather than a note in a margin.

Calibration management software from a working shop

AirOne MRO is developed inside a working EASA Part 145 wheel and brake shop. This register exists because our shop ran the paper version first. A due date sat in a spreadsheet and a certificate in an inbox. Neither reached the torque wrench on the bench.

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