Data Validation: Accurate Measurements Every Time

Swan Analytical USA manufactures water quality analyzers for continuous online monitoring — they cover a wide range of variables ranging from ammonia, fluorides, PHs, and turbidity.

Bob Langie, vice president of sales and marketing with Swan, told Water Online Radio in an interview that Swan’s responsibility was to assure that the readings from there are ‘absolutely correct.’

What follows is an excerpt of their conversation:

Water Online Radio: Let’s talk a little bit about data validation, what kinds are available?

Langie: We talk about systematic validation of the instrumentation itself, systematic validation of the actual sample that’s coming in and validation that we’re processing and recording that sample in a proper manner.

At Swan, high precision is a given. We’re always going to exceed any kind of requirement necessary in terms of precise measurements.

Say you have a temperature composition for a PH reading fine everybody does that, that’s great. Swan goes beyond that, we validate to that temperature sensor is actually working properly. We validate that the curve on the temperature sensor is good.

We validate that the electronics that we are using to monitor that are good. Then we even compensate for temperature on the electronics which is a step far beyond what anybody else does to ensure that every element of processing just as a secondary measurements such as PH everything is validated all the way through.

Water Online Radio: What are the dangers of not validating?

Langie: You are introducing error and you could end up with a measurement that’s not as meaningful, not as accurate, not as validated.

For example, for a simple PH measurement if you don’t record the temperature, or the temperature isn’t accurate then it’s an invalid reading, and you just wasted your time. That’s the kind of thing that we prevent from happening. We make sure that it’s always valid.

Water Online Radio: How do you implement data validation?

Langie: We spend a lot of time thinking about what could go wrong, and find a way to make sure we know when something has gone wrong. We can’t prevent somebody from shutting off a flow valve to our analyzer but we can certainly tell you that’s a bad reading because that flow valve is not allowing flow. We’re not getting flow so why are you trusting that reading. Here is our indication that you don’t have flow, air go that reading is no good.

Click the radio player below to hear the full interview with Bob Langie.