Calibration Services in El Segundo

Space and satellite work is RF work

Satellite payload, ground segment, and communications engineering runs on RF and microwave test equipment, and that instrument population is both expensive and unforgiving. Spectrum and network analyzers, signal generators, power meters and sensors, noise sources, attenuators, and the precision multimeters underneath all of it.

Our electrical and RF laboratory runs automated Fluke MET/CAL procedures covering digital multimeters to 8.5 digits through spectrum and network analyzers. Automation matters more here than anywhere: an RF calibration performed by hand varies with the technician, and a data record that varies with the technician is not much of a record when an anomaly investigation reaches back through it.

AS9100, Nadcap, and what the auditor actually reads

El Segundo defense and space suppliers get audited against AS9100, and Nadcap where special processes apply. Those auditors move past the calibration sticker to the certificate: is measurement uncertainty stated, is traceability to NIST documented through the chain, is there an explicit decision rule, and what condition was the instrument in on arrival.

All four appear on every certificate we issue — as-found and as-left readings, uncertainty, NIST traceability, and the ANSI/NCSL Z540.3 decision rule with TUR. We hold A2LA ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation, certificate 4296.01, comply with ANSI/NCSL Z540-1 and Z540.3, and maintain a quality system compliant to ISO 10012 and applicable portions of AS9100, IATF 16949, ISO 13485, and FDA 21 CFR. Where heat treatment is part of a special process, we perform AMS 2750 oven and furnace surveys.

Torque and dimensional across the supplier network

Behind the primes sits a supplier network machining, fabricating, and assembling flight hardware, and its instrument list is the classic precision-manufacturing one. Micrometers, calipers out to 60 inches, gage blocks, thread gages, bore gauges, height gauges, and indicators.

Torque runs from 0.5 ozf·in to 1,000 lbf·ft, covering everything from instrument-panel screwdrivers to structural fasteners. Dimensional has been our founding and highest-volume discipline since 1968 — we opened as a dimensional laboratory serving aerospace machine shops, which is precisely this work.

The refinery side measures in pressure and flow

Refining and the process industry along the El Segundo waterfront generate a completely different list: pressure transmitters and gauges, transducers, relief and safety valve test equipment, field calibrators, and mass flow instrumentation.

Our pressure laboratory covers −14.7 to 10,000 psi — pneumatic to 2,500 psi at ±0.005% of reading, hydraulic to 10,000 psi, and low pressure from 0 to 30 inH₂O at ±0.009% of reading, which is the range stack and enclosure draft measurements actually live in and which many regional labs simply cannot reach. Gas flow runs on Fluke molbloc and molbox reference systems across six elements from 50 SCCM to 2,500 SLM at ±0.25% of reading over 10 to 100% of full scale.

Thirty-eight miles under our own custody

El Segundo is on our free Tuesday and Thursday Los Angeles County route. It is a real drive at 50 to 70 minutes, but it costs nothing and instruments never leave our custody between your dock and our bench — which for ITAR-sensitive or export-controlled hardware is worth more than the freight savings.

The usual alternative in this market is a national chain office that forwards work out of state into a queue you cannot see or schedule against. Everything we calibrate is calibrated at 1131 S Richfield Rd in Placentia. Standard turnaround is 7–10 business days, with expedited 24, 48, and 72-hour service when an integration or a test campaign will not move. For equipment that should not leave the building at all, on-site calibration is scheduled about two weeks ahead.

One further consideration for export-controlled and ITAR-sensitive programs: chain of custody. When calibration work is forwarded through a local office to a laboratory in another state, the number of hands and facilities involved grows, and so does the paperwork required to demonstrate control. Our arrangement is simpler by construction. Instruments are collected by our own vehicle on the Tuesday and Thursday route, calibrated at a single facility in Placentia, and returned the same way, with no intermediate handoff and no third-party freight. That does not by itself satisfy any particular program requirement, and we will not claim it does — but it makes the custody question a short conversation rather than a long one, which for El Segundo programs is frequently the deciding factor.

Industries we serve in El Segundo

• Aerospace & Space Systems
• Defense Electronics & RF
• Refining & Process Industry
• Precision Machining & Fabrication
• Engineering & Test Laboratories