There are many different reasons why you should calibrate your testing system. Primarily, calibration is performed to ensure that your testing system is operating within its requirements. Whether these requirements are established by law, government regulation, industry regulation, or your own company quality system, organizations have recognized the importance of calibrating systems at regular intervals. The decision to calibrate is related directly to the level of risk your organization is willing to assume or the accuracy of results that are necessary. Calibrating your testing system will provide you with the confidence that your system is performing up to expectations.

The outcome of using an uncalibrated testing system is that it could be producing inaccurate results. This inaccuracy could lead to good products being rejected or potentially bad products being released for use. Ultimately, these results could be recognized by the end user as poor product quality that directly affects the material's performance.

By calibrating your testing system, you’re ensuring that it’s operating within the necessary accuracy requirements. These conditions may be established by an external organization such as the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), or possibly your own internal, company quality system.