A Trusted Calibration Services Provider for the Pilbara Region

August 2022

“In the mining sector, calibration is about the verification of compliance,” says Darren. “In Western Australia, the Health and Safety Act requires mining operators to have their instruments calibrated regularly to ensure the safety of workers.”

“As a result, mining is a very active space for our calibration services team and they regularly drive around the Pilbara region delivering calibration services directly to site and performing equipment audits for mining companies,” he explains.

The biggest challenge with calibrating equipment for customers in the mining industry is the downtime associated with sending instruments off site Vs the cost of mobilising multiple companies to site. We reduce this cost and downtime by planning work across multiple sites and departments, according to Darren.

Since the calibration requirements for every piece of equipment are different and the intervals they need to be calibrated vary, many mining operators tasked with calibrating equipment on site find managing the scope of these jobs frustrating to impossible, observes Darren. 

“The burden of responsibility for calibrating equipment on a mine site often falls onto people who don’t have the qualifications to perform highly specialised calibrations,” says Darren.

“So, it’s not uncommon for us to visit sites and find a $60,000 piece of equipment collecting dust in a corner because no one is trained on how to correctly operate the instrument.” 

Having worked closely with large scale mining operations around Australia, Darren assists companies with managing their assets and service histories piece-by-piece, amounting to their entire equipment portfolio being managed at scale. 

“A comprehensive calibration services plan with a trusted service provider like Thermo Fisher Scientific is really a form of insurance for mining companies that includes the cost of parts, time, and labour for maintaining equipment and prevents a company’s assets from depleting in value,” explains Darren.

“Our end-to-end calibration services offerings ensure that equipment investments are being maximised, uptime and productivity are boosted, and there are fewer repairs and replacements over the life cycle of the instrument.”

“We keep a record of everything we do in an online portal. So, in the instance of an inspection from regulators or governing bodies customers can access all their compliance certificates in one place,” he furthers, concluding, “In some cases, equipment and machinery effectively outlast their intended purpose and can be reused on future projects.”

The significant return on investment mining companies gain from Thermo Fisher Scientific’s calibration services means the cost of investing in a service plan really pays for itself, and then some.

Thermo Fisher Scientific is a world leader in serving science, but science is not the only industry we serve. Our comprehensive calibration services plans are tailored to the needs of your industry.

For more information about our calibration services, contact our calibration service specialists.