Chromatography Forum

How often do you calibrate your HPLC? annually? quarterly?

A bit of terminology here: "calibration" is done at least daily for a given analysis. It consists of establishing the proportionality between response and analyte amount.

In a regulated environment (e.g., pharmaceuticals), any valid method will also have "system suitability" tests which must be met before the method can be run on real samples.

System suitability overlaps a bit with "performance qualification" (which I think is what you are actually referring to). This involves running a defined series of tests on the chromatograph as a system, and often on the individual components. The frequency should be a matter of your SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures), and is typically at least once per year, and certainly after any maintenance or service operations have been performed on the system.

For us, PM/PV once a year by contract engineer, and daily system suitability injections and calculations for our cGMP and GLP work.

Our HPLCs are requalified every six months by Agilent.

Annual PM and performance verification (calibration check), system suitability (at least standard RSD, if not resolution and tailing as well) on every run.

PM/PV once a year by vendor, and system suitability injections with every run.

PM/PV every 6 months minimum performed by in-house staff, system suit every run. Vendor only called if major breakdowns occurs.