When you’re “shopping” for components for your UHV chamber, it’s important that you are able verify that the manufacturer of said components has the necessary quality control systems in place.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the most august and respected institution in devising quality management standards–along with environmental management standards, health and safety standards, energy management standards, food safety standards, and IT security standards–that are used by customers, other manufacturers, and regulators across the globe, plays an integral role when it comes to choosing a manufacturer for the purchase of feedthroughs, viewports, and other vacuum vessel hardware.
If you want to ensure that components you are buying for your UHV chamber will last and perform as advertised, you should be looking for ISO viewports and ISO feedthroughs. In short, you should make sure that the company you’re buying from has received ISO certification.
The History and Importance of ISO Certification
Now headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the ISO began as the premier global accreditation body for businesses of all types in London in 1947. It was, in fact, one of the first organizations to be granted the illustrious general consultative status by the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
As an independent, non-governmental organization, the International Organization of Standardization includes 165 member countries, each with their own standardization requirements and technical committees. Developing voluntary international standards that facilitate trade among member countries, this institution has instituted more than 20,000 standards on everything from manufactured products to healthcare protocols and policies.
Standardization across various business verticals ensures that products and services produced are safe, reliable, and adhere to a particular quality threshold. Certification bodies, in general, allow for the comparison of products from different markets, enable new markets to enter into global trade, and provide a fair trade metric for quality assurance. The International Organization for Standardization is the highest certification authority to ensure that quality standards across industries are met, and creating equity in sundry marketplaces.
Perhaps most importantly, however, ISO certification is pivotal to customer satisfaction: the standards that the organization sets out guards consumers against poor quality management processes that result in poorly-designed and poorly-manufactured products.
As an international organization, this certification enables manufacturers to sell to businesses both inside and outside the United States, without the end-user having to worry that the management system used in the development of a particular product was defective.
The Importance of Quality Management Principles in the Manufacture of UHV Components
As in science, replicability is key in the manufacture of precision components for vacuum vessels.
The quality management benchmarks laid out by the International Organization for Standardization, includes the following:
The manufacturer:
- Focuses on the customer
- Demonstrates strong leadership
- Engages other vested individuals in their processes
- Has an approach that leans on process
- Is consistently engaged in improvement
- Employs evidence-based decision making
- Succeeds at relationship management
In order to achieve ISO 9001 certification, which is the only accreditation that attests to the quality of a company’s management processes in the manufacture of products, a business must demonstrate not only a strong customer orientation, but also continued improvement of processes and products.
When it comes to vacuum vessel components, such as feedthroughs and viewports, you can expect an unparalleled quality with an ISO 9001 certified product.
At MPF, we achieved this certification in order to better serve our customers by offering them the peace of mind in knowing that the components they purchased through us would adhere to the highest standards of quality and performance.
The documentation procedure to gain this prestigious certification is quite demanding, but we that our clients require the best from us. At the same time, in many ways, ISO certification merely confirmed what we already knew about ourselves: namely, that we adhere to the highest standards in processes and procedures in the manufacture of our precision vacuum components.
For new customers, however, we thought this would be a great way of underscoring our commitment to quality.
We were honored to receive this certification, which will enable us to continue to improve upon our already stellar record in the production of vacuum chamber parts for our customers and partners in the scientific community.
