Calibration is one of the primary processes used to maintain the accuracy of any device, instrument or piece of equipment that generates a measurement. Calibration is the process of configuring an device to provide a result for a sample within an acceptable range.

Although the exact procedure may vary from product to product, the calibration process generally involves using the device or equipment to test samples of one or more known values called “calibrators or standards”. The results are used to establish a relationship between the measurement technique used by the device and the known values. The process in essence “teaches” the device to produce results that are more accurate than those that would occur otherwise. The device can then provide more accurate results when samples of unknown values are tested in the normal usage of the product. Calibrations are performed using only a few calibrators to establish the correlation at specific points within the device’s operating range.