Last year at this time I wrote a column in which I criticized the practice of having calibration labs make acceptance decisions in their reports. At that time, the lab could use pass or fail beside the item involved and no data needed to be presented as long as the lab retained it if needed later.
While ISO 17025 still allows that practice, accrediting agencies such as A2LA do not, and for good reason. It means nothing of value. What hasn’t changed is the requirement that uncertainty for the measurement involved would have to be accounted for in making the decision. How it is to be accounted for is not explained. The reason it’s not outlined is due to differing practices around the world, especially where fixed limit gages are involved. North American tolerances are often so close that even NIST would have trouble making a pass/fail decision when about one third or more of the gage tolerance could be eaten up by measurement uncertainty.