EUROMET European Collaboration in Measurement Standards

Transcription

1 EUROMET Mass & Related Quantities TC Meeting EIM Greece Thursday 3 rd March 2005, 9:00-17:30 Minutes 1. Welcoming address Chris Mitsas welcomed the participants and gave a short presentation of the Hellenic Institute of Metrology (EIM). 2. Adoption of agenda The agenda was adopted. 3. Minutes of the last meeting The revised minutes of the meeting held 26 February 2004 at BEV in Vienna were approved. 4. Election of new TC-M chairman and convenors for mass and pressure The EUROMET TC-M has nominated Stuart Davidson, NPL as the new chairman of the committee. If approved by the EUROMET delegates, Stuart will take on the chairmanship after the EUROMET General Assembly, which takes place May The TC-M has appointed Wladimir Sabuga, PTB as the new convenor for Pressure, and Ulf Jacobsson, IRMM as the new convenor for Mass. The TC-M expressed their gratitude towards Stuart, Wladimir and Ulf for their willingness to take on these additional responsibilities. 5. Metrological situation in Member States Albania: Metrology is under development in the country. The national laboratory is located in an old building and new equipment is required. The laboratory asks for assistance from the European community. Austria: In the field of mass, a publication on the new weight handling system for large mass standards is under way. Development of a handling system for smaller weights is considered for the future. A susceptometer for checking magnetic properties of weights have been installed. In the field of density, a facility for measuring density of liquids have been finished. A new project for measuring densities of weights have been initiated. In the field of pressure, a 6 MPa pressure balance (DH) have been installed. Belgium: From the first of January 2004 the department Quality and Safety, of which Metrology is subdivision, has had a new manager. A lot of changes are on discussion. In the technical fields, no major changes have taken place, and no new calibration facilities has been created.

2 Bulgaria: Last year, the general priorities of the activities of NCM were developed and presented as "The long term program for development, establishment and maintenance the national standards". The program, which was adopted by the Bulgarian government in December 2004, covers the period from year 2004 to 2010 and consists of 12 subprograms. Ten subprograms cover development of national standards in different areas. The remaining two subprograms are named "Human resources and knowledge transfer" and "National metrological complex". The long term program also specifies the financial framework of the activities. NCM continues its activities related to obtaining or maintaining international recognition of the Bulgarian national standards through the MRA. In last year, however, NCM did not participate in new international comparisons in area of mass and related quantity. In the middle of the year, we obtained, by governmental resolution decree, a site for building a new metrological complex. In the future, the "State agency of metrology and market surveillance" will, according to changes in the Law of measurement, be separated into the Bulgarian metrological institute and the Agency of metrological control and market surveillance. CEC: Ulf Jacobsson of IRMM (Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements) is the new contact person for mass on behalf of European Commission - Joint Research Centre, replacing Uwe Wätjen. IRMM possesses two stainless steel kilograms traceable directly to BIPM. These kilograms are used to provide an internal traceability at IRMM to support chemical and radionuclide metrology. IRMM takes part in the Avogadro project by characterization of the 28Si material used for the artefact. More information will be given by Dr Staf Valkiers in the Avogadro working group meeting in Berlin in mid March Croatia: The national laboratories for mass and density were so far parts of the State Office for Standardisation and Metrology. During the year 2005, the Croatian State Office for Standardisation and Metrology (DZNM) will be subject to substantial structural and organizational changes. It shall transform into one governmental (the State Office for Metrology - DZM) and two public institutions (Croatian Standards Institute and Croatian Accreditation Agency), representing elements of the national quality infrastructure. The State Office for Metrology comprises the central coordinating unit of the Croatian Metrology Institute (DZM-HMI), a distributed institution/entity responsible for establishing and managing national measurement system. The distributed Metrology institute comprehends laboratories holding national standards situated at different institutions and at the University that are contractually tied to the core unit DZM-HMI within the State Office for Metrology that, besides its coordinating and managing functions, also comprises national laboratories for mass and density.

3 Laboratory for Mass maintains the national standards for mass in the form of a set of the weights from 1 mg to 10 kg in OIML accuracy class E1, and provides services in support to the parts of the national measurement system that directly or indirectly rely on mass measurement. The mission of the laboratory for Density is to ensure measurement traceability of the density measurements in the country. Its operation is based on solid density reference standards and a state-of-the art hydrostatic weighing machine for determination of liquid density. Laboratory for Density has a demonstrated competence for calibration of hydrometers, volume alcoholmeters, mass alcoholmeters, sacharometers, and oscillation type density meters. The main goal of the laboratories for Mass and Density is the upgrade of existing activities and implementation of new procedures for subdivision of the kilogram down to 100 grams that have been developed. In order to confirm and maintain their capabilities to perform measurement in the field of mass and density, the laboratories gladly take part in new projects of interlaboratory comparisons. Laboratory for Process Measurement (LPM) maintains the national standard for pressure. A set of standard Piston/Cylinder assemblies covers the gauge pressure range from 1 up to 140 MPa and differential pressure range from 0 up to 17 MPa. The quality system of LPM is accredited by DKD (Deutscher Kalibrierdienst), therefore LPM calibration certificates are fully traceable to SI units. The mission of the LPM is realization and dissemination of a practical pressure scale and research concerning the measurement of pressure. LPM is being a part of DZM-HMI and is located at University of Zagreb, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture. LPM is very active in scientific and educational activities through more than 50 scientific and technical papers. Ongoing project is related to development of absolute pressure standard. LIMS - Laboratory for Testing Mechanical Properties maintains the national standard for force in the form of a set of the transfer standards in the range 50 N 200 kn in class 00 with best measurement capability of 0,12 % for calibration of material testing machines. Within this year, LIMS will purchase a new reference force calibration machine with best measurement capability of Czech Republic: No dramatic changes have taken place. The laboratory building is being reconstructed, and CMI have been appointed as a notified body in the field of mass measurement. In the field of pressure, two primary standards have been established: A differential pressure balance, and helium leak standard. Denmark: The Danish accreditation body, DANAK has been privatised and is now own by a foundation. At the same time, DANAK has taken over the responsibility for not only legal, but also scientific metrology in Denmark. In the latter case, the responsibility is limited to nominating national reference or

4 primary laboratories; DANAK is not responsible for the funding of these laboratories. Estonia: Significant improvement of the mass scale in the range from 2 kg to 50 kg was achieved. A Mettler AX64004 mass comparator having a fourposition automatic weight handler, a maximum capacity of 64 kg and a readability of 0,1 mg was set up and extensively tested. For the range from 2 kg to 20 kg, a set of reference weights of OIML accuracy class E1 for realisation of mass scale by multiplication was taken into use. Another weight set consisting of eleven 50 kg weights of OIML class F1 was acquired in order to give reference in the range from 50 kg to 500 kg. For this set, a suitable lifting means for safe handling of the weights must be acquired. Bilateral comparison with MIKES, Finland on mass and density of the weights in the range from 5 g to 1 kg was carried out. A project for establishment of the gravimetric liquid density determination was started. Finland: The new laboratory and office building for MIKES will be taken into use by the end of this year. The total number of laboratories is about 40 and the effective floor area is about 1300 m2. In mass there are no major investments or improvements during the last year. In density the new equipment for the measurement of liquid density has been completed. Some tests are still needed. In pressure the situation is stable. A new pressure balance with a large piston diameter for the barometric range and below is worth mentioning, though. The pressure laboratory will get more space in the new premises. The square meters will be more than doubled. In the field of force, there is no change in the measurement capacity, but new equipment for the calibration of tensile tension measurement devices (capacity up to 200 N/cm) has been built. A new 20 knm torque standard machine has been completed last year. The machine has a vertical construction and is based on a reference transducer, which can have a capacity of 2 knm, 5 knm, 10 knm or 20 knm. The proved measurement uncertainty is less than 0, The function of calibration is quasistatic to avoid creep effects from the loading system. The 2 knm and as well as the 20 Nm dead weight torque standard machine have been renewed to get better control of the beam position and to reduce the measurement uncertainty due to more precise determination of the beam length. France: After a reorganisation, BNM has ceased to exist and its responsibilities have been transferred to LNE. In the filed of mass, a study of a mass transfer standard for the watt-balance experiment has been completed: The studied material turned out to be too soft. An air density study has also been completed. In the field of torque, a 50 Nm and a 5 knm machine has been installed, where as in the field of viscosity, a new viscosity meter has been build. In the field of pressure, a new piston-cylinder unit has been qualified.

5 Germany: The reduction of staff at PTB continues and will be enhanced due to the increase of working time from 38,5 to 40 hours/week for officials and from 38,5 to 39 hours/week for others, in addition to a reduction of 1,5 % per year. A new mass comparator, 64 kg maximum load, 0,1 mg resolution, 4 position auto-matic weight exchange (Mettler-Toledo), has been purchased and successfully tested. The standard deviation is less than 0,4 mg. A new 1 kg mass comparator (Mettler-Toledo m_one, resolution 0,0001 mg) has been ordered and will be in-stalled in This comparator will be delivered with an airtight, evacuation chamber. A new 1,1 MN m torque machine has been installed and successfully tested. A first calibration of a 700 kn m torque transducer has been done. Developments of standard machines for calibrating low torques (1 mn m) and low forces (1 mn) are underway. A CIPM key comparison with force transducers 500 kn to 4 MN is under way and EUROMET key comparisons in the same range will start at the end of this year. For the ion accumulation experiment, a new accumulation measurement is planned for this year. With the new bismuth ion source, an ion current of 5 ma has been obtained and 1-2 ma for the accumulation measurement is expected. In the field of pressure, the new mercury micromanometer for the 5 kpa range is being evaluated. A digital pressure balance with non-rotating piston FRS-5 for the pressure range up to 7 kpa has been purchased by the Vacuum Working Group. Its characteristics are being studied in the Pressure Working Group in absolute and gauge mode with different gas species. Its performance will also be checked by a comparison with a similar FRS-5 available in the Pressure Working Group. Following to the increasing need of industry in calibration of pressure transducers above 1 Gpa, PTB has started the development of a new pressure balance for the 1.6 GPa pressure range. The instrument will be created with a support of four companies which are particularly interested in the high pressure calibrations. In the density section, a new balance (Mettler AX 1006) for the hydrostatic weighing apparatus has been purchased. Greece: A new administration was build in A business plan was to be set up. In the field of force, a new 5 kn device has been installed and a 5 MN device has been modified. Hungary: Some new mass standards have been purchased (10, 20 kg E1). Due to the governmental savings program a significant reduction of the budget was introduced. This reduction has not effected the staff working in mass related areas. Ireland: No major changes have taken place during the last year. Israel: The metrology institute covers measurement of mass (1 mg 20 kg), pressure (8 kpa 120 MPa), length, temperature; frequency; voltage and resistance. Calibrations are performed for secondary laboratories in the country. The laboratory wants to take part in projects and comparisons with European laboratories.

6 Italy: The merging process of IMGC and IEN in the future INRIM is going on. Regulations were prepared and a joint activity plan for the years was presented to the Research Ministry, upon which the new institute will depend. In the relevant field of Mass & RQ, Carlo Ferrero, head of the force group and Anita Calcatelli, head of the vacuum group, have retired. These sectors are being restructured in order to ensure continuity. The dynamic low pressure system has been re-evaluated and successfully tested. A thruster for satellite applications is in the developing phase. It will provide accurate thrusts in the range from 2 µn to 1 mn. A new 10 kg balance has been installed in the mass laboratory and another one in the density laboratory for hydrostatic weighing. These balances replace obsolete models. Preliminary weighing in vacuum have been carried out on stainless steel kilograms with good results. Latvia: A new 500 kg reference standard (Zwiebel) has been acquired, and the national standards in the range from 1 mg to 1 kg has been calibrated at DFM. The laboratory has obtained accreditation for calibration of mass standards and weighing instruments. Lithuania: No major changes have taken place during the last year. A new set of mass standards in the range from 1 mg to 10 kg has been acquired. Netherlands: The offices of NMi have been moved to the new building, and the laboratories were to be moved the following week. In the field of mass, an automatic comparator covering the range from 1 kg to 10 kg have been installed. The weight exchange system has been manufactured by SMU. A facility for hydrostatic weighing is being build. In the field of pressure, a new vacuum facility is being set up. Norway: Justervesenet have been divided into two parts: Legal metrology and scientific metrology. In the field of mass, no major changes have taken place. The activities in pressure and density have been rather low. Poland: No significant changes have taken place, so the organisational structure have been stabilised during the last year. In the field of mass, the following new equipment have been acquired: A mass comparator Sartorius CC U-L with Max = 10 kg, d = 0,01 mg, and repeatability s = 0,05 mg at 2 kg, 5 kg and 10 kg, A mass comparator with Max = 50 kg, A mass comparator with Max = 1000 kg, 5 pieces of 10 kg stainless steel mass standards, 10 pieces of 1 kg stainless steel mass standards, 20 pieces of 50 kg stainless steel mass standards.

7 Using this new equipment, mass standards can be calibrated with smaller values of uncertainty. The mass laboratory has participated in national interlaboratory comparisons on calibration of mass standards. In the field of pressure, the laboratory has been equipped with new 100 MPa pressure balance in order to improve the uncertainty of measurement and to satisfy the national needs in this range. The laboratory has participated in national interlaboratory comparisons on calibration of pressure standards in the range from 0,7 kpa to 700 kpa. In the field of viscosity, the results of GUM in the key comparison CCM.V-K1 have been published in the KCDB. GUM has also taken part in the international comparison D02.07.A under the ASTM Cooperative Kinematic Viscosity Program and has achieved very good results. A new temperature bridge ASL F 700B AC has been installed. This instrument will allow GUM to obtain more precise measurements of temperature and will be part of the national viscosity standard. In the field of density, the laboratory has been equipped with a 1 kg silicon single crystal sphere calibrated in PTB, and the hydrostatic weighing facility has been modernised. The laboratory participated in EUROMET Project 702. Portugal: Since the last meeting in Vienna, IPQ have got a new administration board, and Luis Brito has left the institute. Within the next 2 months, it is expected that the capacity of the force machines will be extended from 100 kn to 1 MN (GTM). In the field of mass, a new mass A5 Automatic Comparator from Mettler-Toledo will be installed together with a system for determining density. Romania: In 2004, INM was admitted as a full member of EUROMET. In February this year, the QS Forum was held in Bucharest, Romania. At this forum, INM reported full implementation of the Quality System, based on the ISO In field of pressure, the bilateral comparison between INM and IMGC (EUROMET Project 722) was finished with good results. In field of force, INM changed the set of weights for their 10 kn dead weight machine. The Mass Laboratory is in renovation now and it be fully operational very soon. The INM air condition system is under reconstruction: it is a new one with better performance and higher stability. Serbia and Montenegro: The Bureau of Measures and Precious Metals (ZMDM) is a government organization responsible for the National Metrology System in Serbia & Montenegro, particularly regarding the management of the national reference standards, legal metrology and the precious metals system. The Bureau of Measures and Precious Metals is a national metrology institution that is responsible for the realization and maintenance of national measurement standards and their periodic comparisons with international or foreign national measurement standards. It also performs the following tasks:

8 Implementation of International System of Units, Type approval of measuring instruments, Establishment of metrological requirements and other metrological regulations for particular measuring instruments and Cooperation in accreditation of metrological laboratories. The Bureau of Measures and Precious Metals is based in the capitol city (Belgrade) and its main organizational units are: The Metrological Development Sector with nine groups for various fields of metrology. In the laboratory of the Metrological development sector, the Bureau realizes and maintains national measurement standards and uses them for assigning values to secondary standards; The Control Inspection sector has eight regional services for measures in different town in the state. The verification of measuring instruments for legal metrology purposes are normally carried out in these Measures control units. The Logistic sector has five groups that support the work of the Bureau and the establishment of the quality system of Bureau The Laboratory for mass is a part of Metrological development sector where weights of OIML class E2 and F1 in the range from 1 mg to 10 kg are calibrated. The Laboratory has two national standards of unit mass, which are two weight sets of class E1 from 1 mg to 10 kg. Five mass comparators are used for calibration: Three comparators with built in weights One electromechanical balance One equal arm balance In the next two years, the Bureau plans to rebuild the laboratory for mass and to acquire a new climate station, mass comparators and to establish a quality system in accordance with ISO Slovakia: The activities in ionising radiation are currently absorbing all available funding for new developments. For other NMIs, SMU have manufactured a density rig for measuring densities of mass standards in the range from 1 g to 1 kg, and a automatic mass comparator covering the range from 1 kg to 10 kg. Slovenia: In the field of mass, the accreditation for calibration of mass standards in the range from 1 mg to 10 kg with E1 level of measurement uncertainty has been achieved. A new Sartorius CC6 manual comparator has been purchased and put into use. The scope of accreditation has been extended and improved also in the field of pressure. Since the formation of a new government, the institute is a part of Ministry of higher education, science and technology. Consequently, some offices of the

9 institute have been moved to a new location. Many activities have been carried in the field of legal metrology. After becoming a new EU member state, we also operate as a notified body for NAWI. Spain: During the last year, some organizational changes have taken place. In December 2004, Centro Español de Metrología (CEM) was moved from the Department and now belongs to Industry, Trade and Tourism Ministry. At the same time, a new Director and a new Scientific Deputy director was appointed. A new long term strategy plan is been elaborated and it will be presented during the 3rd National Metrology Congress in May, From the technical point of view we can summarize the situation as follows: In the mass and density field, there have been no major investments or improvements during this period. The mass laboratory has taken part in a susceptibility comparison piloted by NCR (Canada). In the field of pressure, the work on design and develop of a mercury column primary standard is going on. The automation of the dynamic expansion system of the pressure laboratory is going on in order to change the previous system, V=constant ; P=variable In force, the 10 MN force standard machine project has been delayed and it is expected to start this year. A new control system has been implemented for the 2 MN force hydraulic machine and it is under testing. In torque, a bilateral comparison with PTB has been carried out as a final step of the cooperation project. All CEMs laboratories have dedicated a lot of effort to supply traceability to national calibration laboratories and pilot some comparisons. During this year the following comparisons have been piloted: Comparison on absolute pressure in the range of 100 hpa to 2600 hpa Comparison on large masses: 500 kg and 1000 kg In addition, CEM is participating as pilot laboratory in a comparison of mass for the values 1 kg, 100 g, 20 g, 5 g and 100 mg with National laboratories of metrology of Comunidad Andina in the frame of Technical Assess and Cooperation Program of EU (AECR/B7-31/IB/96/0188). This comparison is expected to be ended by April Sweden: There have been some organisational changes at SP during the last year. A new head of division have been appointed, and the length have been merged with mass, force, torque and pressure. Switzerland: The federal saving program (cost reduction) of 10 % until the end of 2008 will have a strong influence on some activities and on investments at METAS. The staff is not directly concerned (nevertheless some retired people will not be replaced).

10 In the mass laboratory, the new project "combined methods" was initiated in March 2004 (new 1 kg vacuum mass comparator and surface analysis with angle resolved X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy). A 20 kg automatic mass comparator (robotic system with 10 places for mass standards and unknowns) was installed in the calibration laboratory for verification authorities. This system, which is developed by Metrotec, is based on a Mettler-Toledo AX32004 mass comparator. In the pressure laboratory, a new static expansion system was built. This system will be presented at the 4th CCM international conference on pressure metrology (London, April 2005). Turkey: A hydrostatic weighing system for measuring the volume of mass standards in the range from 2 kg to 10 kg with a relative uncertainty of has been set up. For measuring the volumes of smaller weights, a Mettler VC 1005 volume comparator has been installed. In the volume and density laboratory, a system for measuring density of weights in the range from 20 kg to 50 kg with an uncertainty less than 2 kg/m 3 has been set up. UK: The mass laboratory will finally move to the new building this year. A new measurement of the Planck constant with a relative uncertainty of have been completed. A new hardness calibration service has been set up, and in the field of torque, a new machine have been installed. In the field of pressure, a new primary barometer has been build and the 4th CCM International Conference on Pressure Metrology has been organised. BIPM: The watt-balance experiment is moving forward. Different magnetic circuits have been studied using finite element analysis in order to find the optimum circuit for the experiment. In the field of mass, the performance of the flexure strip balance have been verified, and a study of vapour sorption on mass standards have been carried out using this balance. In the field of pressure, the old mercury barometer has been replaced by a primary pressure balance. The torsion balance for the measurement of the gravitational constant G has been improved and is now working very well. 6. EUROMET Project reports The Chairman reminded that coordinators should submit their annual progress reports for the ongoing projects to the EUROMET Secretariat with a copy to the chairman. The content of the progress reports will be inserted in the EUROMET Projects database ( For the projects that are not registered as EUROMET key or supplementary comparisons, the following brief status reports were given: Mass subfield:

11 351: The project is ongoing. A workshop on mass standards were held prior to the TC-M meeting. It was suggested to make the presentations available at the EUROMET TC-M website. 402: The project is to be completed. The coordinator will submit a final report form to the EUROMET secretariat. 509: The data from the 1 kg Pt/Ir comparison have been analysed and a final report will be circulated. 519: No new studies have been carried out during the last year. The project is to be completed. 697: Ongoing, but no significant progress for last year was reported. 734: The project is ongoing with significant progress. 786: This project is now agreed and the new coordinator is Fredrik Arrhen, SP. These changes should be reported to the EUROMET Secretariat by the new coordinator by sending and agreed project form. 832: This project is ongoing. Density subfield: 144: This project is to be completed. The last project meeting was held prior to the TC-M meeting. The project has been very successful and has lead to an improved value of the Argon content in standard air. A revised CIPM recommendation for the calculation of moist air is expected in a not too distant future. 675: The project is completed and the coordinator will send a final report form to the EUROMET Secretariat. Pressure subfield: 463: This project is ongoing, and the second phase has been started. Some significant discrepances in the calculated gaps have been observed. 499: The project is still ongoing. 534: This project is completed. The coordinator will therefore send a final report form to the EUROMET Secretariat. 740: This project is completed and the coordinator will send a final report form to the EUROMET Secretariat. The results will be presented to the 4th CCM International Pressure Conference, London, UK, 19-21April : The project is completed and the coordinator will send a final report form to the EUROMET Secretariat. 803: The project is ongoing. CMI and SP have joined the project. Force subfield: 113: The project is ongoing. A comparison between IMGC and PTB has been initiated.

12 285: The project is ongoing. 286: The project is ongoing. 769: The project is now agreed. The coordinator should therefore send an agreed project form to the EUROMET secretariat. Viscosity subfield: 005: The project is ongoing with Henning Wolf as the new coordinator. 7. Proposed EUROMET projects The following five projects were proposed: 1. Philippe Richard proposed a study of surface effects on mass standards. As participating countries CH, FR and ES were mentioned. 2. Sandu Ion proposed a bilateral comparison between RO and TR on calibration of a pressure balance in the range from 50 kpa to 350 kpa with oil as medium. 3. Robert Spurny proposed a EUROMET Key Comparison on liquid density in the range from 600 kg/m 3 to 1400 kg/m 3. As participating countries SK, DE, AT, FI, IT, NL, UK and HR were mentioned. SMU has offered to pilot the comparison. 4. Ivan Kriz proposed a 500 kg EUROMET Supplementary Comparison for laboratories that did not take part in EUROMET 461. As participating countries CZ, HU, PL, SK, MT, AT and RO were mentioned. 5. Alex Lefkopoulos proposed a pressure comparison in a range up to 7 MPa with gas as medium. As participating countries CH, SK, CZ, NL, AT, RO, and IT were mentioned. The chairman requested the proposers to send in proposed or agreed project forms to the EUROMET Secretariat. 8. Status on EUROMET Key Comparisons The status on EUROMET Key and Supplementary Comparisons registered in the Key Comparison Database (KCDB) were compared with the information given in the KCDB. The chairman will send the status updates to Claudine Thomas, BIPM who will then update the KCDB. EUROMET.M.M-K1: The report was finished years ago and should be send to BIPM together with tables and graphs in Excel-format. EUROMET.M.M-K2: No change. EUROMET.M.M-K2.1: No change. EUROMET.M.D-K2: No change. EUROMET.M.D-K4: Status as given in the KCDB.

13 EUROMET.M.P-K1.a: Draft B approved. EUROMET.M.P-K3.a: Draft B approved (Note added by LN : According to Claudine Thomas, this could not be confirmed by the chairman of CCM. The status in the KCDB has therefore not been updated). EUROMET.M.P-K3.b: No change. EUROMET.M.F-K1:Report in progress, draft A. EUROMET.M.F-K2: No change. EUROMET.M.F-K3: The time of the comparison should be changed from to EUROMET.M.M-S1: Report in progress, Draft A. The number of participants should be reduced from 18 to 15 as INM, OMH, and SMU were not ready to participate. EUROMET.M.P-S1: Report in progress, Draft A. The period should be changed from 2004 to The current status of the comparisons after this update are given in Table 1 and Table 2 of Appendix A. 9. Status on Mass CMC Tables for Appendix C In November 2004, EUROMET TC-M submitted new and modified CMC tables from 13 countries. This submission is labelled EUROMET.M SIM, APMP, COOMET and SADCMET have all indicated that they will review these tables, but up the meeting, only COOMET have completed their review and approved the claims. Several countries indicated that they would like to submit new or modified CMC tables in It was agreed to set 31 October 2005 as the deadline for sending such tables to the chairman. Instructions for modifying already published CMC tables are given in the document JCRB-8/10: Instructions for drawing up new CMC excel files are given in the following document: doc. After 1 June 2005 the CMC review team consists of the following persons: Subfield Mass Solid density and gravity Liquid density Pressure CMC Reviewer Ulf Jacobsson (IRMM) Philippe Richard (METAS) Horst Bettin (PTB) Wladimir Sabuga (PTB)

14 Force Torque Viscosity Hardness 10. The role of TC-M in the imera project Rolf Kumme (PTB) Diedert Peschel (PTB) Henning Wolf (PTB) Alessandro Germak (IMGC) A brief outline of the imera project is available at the EUROMET website ( The chairman gave an overview of the project, emphasising the important role that the EUROMET TCs are expected to play. 11. EUROMET s adoption of the EA Special Calibration Documents The status of the following documents was discussed: EA-10/03 Calibration of pressure balances (1997): Jean Claude Legras and Jos Verbeek found that the document was still good although the section on evaluation of uncertainty needed to be updated. EA-10/04 Uncertainty of Calibration Results in Force Measurements (1996): Andre Gosset found that this document was not up to date, especially regarding section 9, and that it should be revised in accordance with a standard on calibration of force proving instruments that is being developed by ISO. The following working group for this revision was suggested: Philippe Averlant, Andy Knot, Rolf Kumme, Aimo Pusa, William Vincke, José Robles. EA-10/14 EA Guidelines on the Calibration of Static Torque Measuring Devices (2000): According to Diedert Peschel, this guideline was up to date and did not need to be revised. EA-10/16 EA Guideline on the Estimation of Uncertainty in Hardness Measurements (2001): Aimo Pusa found that although the level of this document was to high for the potential users, it was up to date and did not need to be revised. EA-10/17 EA Guidelines on the Calibration of Electromechanical Manometers (2002): Jean Claude Legras found that this guideline was up to date and did not need to be revised. EA-10/18 Guidelines on the calibration of nonautomatic weighing instruments (2005): Only a draft version of the document was available, and it was unclear which status it had within EA as it did not appear on the EA website. Several people expressed their opinion about this document. Andre Gosset had problems with this guideline, Aimo Pusa found it was too complicated for the intended user, and Walter Bich found that the document was very rich but unsuitable to serve as a calibration guideline. Jose Robles found that harmonization and the field was needed. Ivan Kriz mentioned that he had produced a short version of the guideline and offered to provide an English translation of that version. It was decided that EA-10/18 should not be adopted as a EUROMET calibration guideline, but that it deserved to be preserved somehow.

15 It was agreed that all documents except EA-10/18 should be adopted as EUROMET calibration guidelines and transferred to the EUROMET website. For the documents that needed to be revised, a note should be given explaining that the document is not completely up to date and is under revision. It was agreed to carry out the revisions as one or several EUROMET projects. 12. Redefinition of the kilogram in 2007 EUROMET TC-M found that a redefinition of the kilogram as suggested in the paper by Ian Mills et al, Redefinition of the kilogram: A decision whose time has come was premature. The position paper shown in appendix B was prepared and unanimously adopted by the participants. 13. Date and place of next meeting The next EUROMET TC-M meeting will be held at IMGC, Torino on Thursday 3 March 2006 with the dates 1-2 March reserved for project meetings. 14. Miscellaneous 1) It was suggested to allocate some time on the agenda for the next EUROMET TC-M meeting in which selected countries are allowed to give a deeper presentation of their metrological situation. The countries NL, RO, FI and EE expressed an interest in giving such presentation at the next meeting. 2) Walter Bich reported on the work of JCGM-WG1, which has been given the task to produce a number of supplementary guides to the GUM. The first supplement, Propagation of distributions using a Monte Carlo method, has been circulated for comments in Many comments, also from NMIs, had been received. Based on these comments, a new draft would be prepared. This draft will be circulated for approval only among the 8 organisations that have adopted the GUM. Other supplements are under preparation but they are at an earlier stage of completion.

16 Appendix A. EUROMET key and supplementary comparisons registered in the KCDB. Comparison ID Project Subfield No. of Pilot Status Years no. part. EUROMET.M.M-K1 215 C Mass 10 NPL Report in progress, Draft B EUROMET.M.M-K2 445 A Mass 25 SP Report in progress, Draft A EUROMET.M.M-K A Mass 5 SP Protocol complete EUROMET.M.M-K4 510 A Mass 26 NPL Report in progress, Draft A EUROMET.M.D-K1 339 C Density 12 METAS Provisional equivalence EUROMET.M.D- 236 C Density 5 IMGC Provisional equivalence K2.Prev EUROMET.M.D-K2 627 A Density 8 PTB Report in progress, Draft B EUROMET.M.D-K4 702 A Density 11 IMGC In progress EUROMET.M.P-K1.a 442 A Pressure 10 BNM-LNE Report approved, Draft B EUROMET.M.P-K1.b 442 A Pressure 7 BNM-LNE Approved for equivalence EUROMET.M.P-K2 305 C Pressure 6 PTB Approved for equivalence EUROMET.M.P-K3.a 439 A Pressure 8 LNE/NPL Report in progress, Draft B EUROMET.M.P-K3.b 439 A Pressure 13 NPL Report in progress, Draft A EUROMET.M.P-K4 389 C Pressure 14 NPL Report in progress, Draft B EUROMET.M.P-K5 045 C Pressure 7 BNM-LNE Provisional equivalence EUROMET.M.P-K6 110 C Pressure 6 BNM-LNE Provisional equivalence EUROMET.M.F-K1 535 A Force 9 MIKES Report in progress, Draft A EUROMET.M.F-K2 518 A Force 10 NPL Planned EUROMET.M.F-K3 505 A Force 11 PTB Planned Table 1. The status of the EUROMET Key Comparisons April 2005 Comparison ID Project Subfield No. of Pilot Status Years no. partic. EUROMET.M.V-S1 273 C Viscosity 4 PTB Published EUROMET.M.V-S2 303 C Viscosity 5 PTB Published EUROMET.M.V-S3 415 C Viscosity 12 PTB Published 2000 EUROMET.M.V-S4 415 C Viscosity 8 PTB Published 1997 EUROMET.M.M-S1 461 A Mass 15 CMI Report in progress, Draft A EUROMET.M.P-S1 788 A Pressure 2 METAS Report in progress, Draft A Table 2. The status of the EUROMET Supplementary Comparisons April 2005

17 Appendix B. Position of the EUROMET TC-M on the paper: Redefinition of the kilogram: A decision whose time has come 1 The EUROMET TC-M recognizes that the current definition of the kilogram in terms of the international prototype is not satisfactory, as the mass of the prototype is believed to change as a function of time. In recent years, members of EUROMET, as well as the BIPM and NIST, have initiated new or improved Watt-balance experiments in order to determine the Planck constant h with a relative standard uncertainty of a few parts in 10 8 that is necessary for monitoring the foreseen change in mass of the prototype over a period of several years. These experiments are expected to deliver results within the next 5-10 years that might change the current value of h in terms of the kilogram at its present definition based on the international prototype. In parallel, a significant effort is being put into the Avogadro project in order to measure the Avogadro constant N A with the required relative standard uncertainty of a few parts in As a result, an improved value of N A is expected to be available within the next 5-10 years as well. Currently, there is a relative discrepancy of 10-6 between the prototype-based values of h and N A. If the kilogram would be defined by fixing the value of h or N A today, the mass of the prototype, m(k) could therefore be expected to change by 1 mg or more within the next 5-10 years, as the results of the new experiments become available. In other words, the relative difference between the SI unit kg and the temporary conventional unit kg 07, being defined in the paper as the mass of the kilogram prototype, could well amount up to For comparison, the relative expanded uncertainty (k = 2) claimed by a typical NMI is at the 1 kg level, whereas the relative maximum permissible error for commercial OIML class E 1 weights larger than 50 g is A relative difference of 10-6 between the SI unit kg and the conventional unit kg 07 would create a number of problems at NMIs, at industrial calibration laboratories and at verification offices the day the conventional unit kg 07 were abolished: All values assigned to high accuracy weights, weighing instruments and density standards would have to be updated from one day to the next. Most of the classified OIML class E 1 weights would have to be replaced. Density tables used in volume and density measurements would have to be updated. The impact on all instruments measuring quantities derived from the kilogram, such as force, torque and pressure, would have to be evaluated. In order to avoid such problems, the relative difference between the new SI unit kg and the mass of the international prototype of the kilogram should not be larger than Therefore, the EUROMET TC- M recommends that a new definition of the kilogram based on fixed values of h or N A should be postponed until at least three independent experiments (Watt-balance experiments or the Avogadro project) have provided consistent results with relative standard uncertainties of a few parts in Agreed by EUROMET TC-M at its meeting in Thessalonica 1 Ian M Mills, Peter J Mohr, Terry J Quinn, Barry N Taylor and Edwin R Williams, Redefinition of the kilogram: a decision whose time has come, Metrologia 42 (2005) 71 80