Traceability has become a key business issue. Many industries need traceability so that customers will know the performance for instruments and materials supplied. With environmental emission monitoring or emission trading, authorities demand traceability to help ensure that public safety requirements are met.
Traceability is the relationship between a measured value and an established element of a National/International Measurement System. It cannot be achieved following any one particular procedure or by using special equipment. For traceability to exist there must be an unbroken chain of comparisons between the sample and an accredited measurement system. The measurement system by which values are transferred must be clearly understood and under control.
Accreditation is an important aspect in the production of specialty gases. Many of our HiQ® specialty gas facilities have received certification as a producer under ISO 9001, with selected facilities independently accredited to programmes such as ISO 17025:2005 as testing and/or calibrating laboratory, and ISO Guide 34 which provides the highest level of quality assurance and allows Linde to confidently state that the methods used to certify their accredited calibration gas mixtures are accurate, consistent, documented and validated.