World's largest measurement laboratory calibrates half a million measuring instruments annually

Trescal is an independent expert in calibration services that performs more than half a million interventions annually. As the company grows, wants to become greener and offer its employees an optimal workplace, the decision was made to leave the Antwerp site and open a new calibration laboratory in Wommelgem, Belgium. The largest in the world. Here, instruments from more than 70,000 customers are calibrated; ranging from Pfizer and Coca-Cola to Defense, Rolex and Tesla.

Trescal started fifty years ago in France and in 2011 opened Trescal Benelux with its headquarters in Antwerp. This Benelux branch now has 420 employees working at various locations. Recently, the Antwerp headquarters moved to Wommelgem. Kasper Pijs is Sales Manager and states: "The move was necessary because we are easily outgrowing our premises. We are getting more and more orders from the aerospace, automotive, pharmaceutical, chemical, energy, electronics, manufacturing and telecommunications sectors in Belgium, the Netherlands and the EMEA region."

Voor deze klanten voeren de technici van Trescal niet minder dan een half miljoen interventies per jaar uit op het vlak van kalibratie, 3D-meetwerk en cleanroomvalidatie en -kwalificatie. Maar bovendien breidt het bedrijf haar diensten verder uit en wil het haar klanten ontzorgen op diverse domeinen van de metrologie.

Denk daarbij aan het kalibreren van instrumentatie voor het meten van elektriciteit, druk, temperatuur en vocht, dimensioneel, mechanisch, optisch en fysisch 3D-meetwerk, volume, massa, flow, deeltjestelling, anemometrie, enzovoorts.

More space for man and machine

Pijs: "To perform all this work, we needed more space. But also for storing instruments and measuring kits for customers. In addition, we felt it was important to reduce our carbon footprint and make our logistics even more efficient. After all, we offer to pick up measuring instruments from customers and - after calibration - bring them back. All within the agreed time and the desired (high) quality standards. Last but not least, we wanted the working environment for our employees to be more professional and safer. Only then can we also facilitate in the professional growth of our technicians and engineers."

Om de afgesproken doorlooptijden te garanderen, bleven de laboratoria in Hengelo, Zoetermeer, Louvain-La-Neuve, Wellin, Eindhoven en Sint-Renelde operationeel. Zowel voor als na de verhuizing. Ook de on-site technici blijven actief terwijl Trescal Benelux tijdens de verhuizing werd ondersteund door het internationale netwerk van laboratoria in Frankrijk, Spanje en de UK. Pijs: “De platformen voor instrumenten- en certificatenbeheer en de oproepsystemen (Trescal Vision en Trescal View) blijven online en zijn zonder onderbreking te raadplegen.”

New laboratory

As far as Trescal Benelux is concerned, the industrial park in Wommelgem is the perfect place for the new laboratory. For example, the nearby highway contributes to the accessibility and reachability. On the other hand, the absence of a nearby railroad is advantageous because a passing train could affect the high-precision measurements performed in the lab. And there are many of them: on the three floors of the lab, which is twice the size of the previous lab (6,000 m2), there is a variety of equipment for calibrating lasers, oscilloscopes and other measuring instruments for measuring pressure, temperature, flow and distance, among other things. The most high-tech machines are the 3D measuring machines that measure extremely accurately: down to 1.6 microns, some 40% of time is measured here for the pharmaceutical sector.

Pijs concludes, "The instruments come from all over the Benelux and from a large number of different customers who have different accuracy requirements. In the most extreme case, these go up to two ten-thousandths of a gram and one two-thousandth of a hair. Incidentally, our own standards are also calibrated in the same lab. This in turn is important for accurate calibration on site at the customer's premises. For more information about our capabilities to also calibrate your instrumentation, contact Trescal Benelux."  

Bezoek Trescal op de WoTS – Standnummer 8A050