Two new miniature metallic sealed-cells containing the triple point of water, WTP (273.16K) and the triple point of mercury, HgTP (234.3156 K) have been constructed for therealization of the International Temperature Scale of 1990 (ITS-90) at the NationalInstitute of Standards (NIS-Egypt). The new cells will provide facilities for thecalibration of Capsule-type Standard Platinum Resistance Thermometers (CSPRTs). The twocells will complete a multi-cells compartment in order to calibrate CSPRTs in one singleexperiment. The multi-cells compartment contains two other cells; the triple point ofargon (83.8058 K) and the triple point of oxygen (54.3584 K) that has been alreadydeveloped and characterized before [M.G. Ahmed, Y. Hermier, Development of an adiabaticcalorimeter in the range 54 K–273 K in frame of a scientific collaboration LNE-NIS, AIPConf. Proc. 1552, 153 (2013)]. The system can calibrate two CSPRTs at once.The compartment is accommodated in an adiabatic calorimeter. With a special technique, thecalorimeter could go down to a temperature of 52 K using liquid nitrogen and specialpumping system.

One of the main calibration services of African NMIs (National Metrology Institutes) isthe measurement of tapes and rules. This is mainly regulated by legal metrology and OIML(International Organisation of Legal Metrology) specifications are therefore referenced.Specifically, OIML R-35 is the standard to which rules or line scales must conform. Theaccuracy of most African NMIs systems however, cannot prove conformance to thisspecification. This article will detail the development of a new, cost effective, linescale calibration system, which will have accuracy better than the specificationprescribed. The system was locally developed and its design is based onoff-the-shelf components and open source software. It is alsoready-for-upgrade to an absolute system. The system and details of theline detection algorithm will be presented.

The development of evaluation methods for precision measurement and inter-verificationinterval measurement for measurement devices based on the concept of the uncertainty ofmeasurement is needed in order to establish the timing of the next scheduled orunscheduled verification of the correspondence of metrological characteristics to theirstandardised values. The definition of the timing (periodicity) of the metrologicalverification of measurement devices as used in business or health care, while monitoringenvironmental conditions and proving health and safety at work, is an urgent issue inscientific research, upon which depends the quality of goods and services. A method ofevaluating the accuracy of measurements and the inter-verification interval formeasurement devices is proposed, based on using international standards guidelines forquality measurement. The calibration method for evaluating the inter-verification intervalof measurement devices was tested during the metrological certification of the measurementdevice for the moment of inertia of electric motors.

As part of its training activities, SupAgro – Institut des Régions Chaudes (IRC),an agricultural engineering school in Montpellier, has introduced an appliedtraining session in metrology for its students. This was undertaken by the CIRAD metrologyplatform in partnership with the agrifood technology platform of the Qualisud JointResearch Unit. The session comprises two hour workshops during which students can applythe basic notions required for metrological monitoring of the quantities “temperature” and“weight”. To that end, standard weights, a temperature calibration device comprising athermostatically controlled calibration oil bath (uncertainty at k = 2 of 0.14°C) and a standardtemperature probe with an accuracy of ±0.01 °Cwere made available to the technology platform by the CIRAD metrology platform. Duringpractical work, these COFRAC calibrated instruments are used to check balances and, inparticular, make students aware of the importance of parameters that might influence thetemperature measurement of a thermostatically controlled bath (homogeneity, resolution andaccuracy of the thermometers, measurement repeatability, etc.). To that end, the Qualisudteam specifically adapted a water bath so as to be able to position several temperatureprobes at different places in the bath. Students have to acquire an approach that needs totake into account a particular measuring context. The teaching scenario of the trainingsession is structured around these metrological checks proposed directly to the students.The training session takes place each year with 2nd year students on the SAADS 2/IAAScourse “Sustainable Agriculture and Agrifood Systems in the South” at SupAgroin Montpellier.

The wood preservation laboratory of Cirad is accredited by COFRAC (French accreditationcommittee – accreditation No. 1-1686) for tests on (1) durability of wood and wood-basedproducts; (2) protective efficacy of wood preservatives; (3) efficacy of termite controlproducts. In order to test the efficacy of wood preservatives, non-durable wood blocks aretreated using different product doses and exposed to the attack of xylophageous organisms(fungi, insects). To reproduce the ageing of treated wood blocks, some laboratoryprocedures are available. Amongst them, there is an evaporation procedure, reproducing theaction of a warm air flow onto treated wood. This ageing step is very discriminant, asonly the formulations fixing effectively the active ingredients will pass the biologicaltest afterwards. This ageing by evaporation is described in the EN73 standard.Nevertheless, many points remain difficult to overcome. The tunnels used for theevaporation are all prototypes; as such equipment is not available currently on themarket. So each laboratory has got its own tunnel device. Moreover the way to measure thetemperature and speed of the air flow is very difficult to achieve considering theprescriptions of the EN73 standard. The EN73 standard is being revised by the Europeanstandardization group (CEN TC38) and despite the metrological aspects were crucial andinadequate in former version, they were not considered as they should. The woodpreservation laboratory has forwarded remarks in order to supersede some points of therevision document in order to consider the metrological aspects. This is of mainimportance as the ageing procedure is commonly used prior to most of the biological test,and such tested products are put on the market based on the efficacy results.

Hardness is a measure of the resistance of a material to be penetrated and eroded bysharp projections of other materials such as diamond. The process of creating sharpprojections on any test surface is known as indentation. Hardness measurement of anymaterial is the result of a complex process of deformation during indentation. Theindenter tip geometry, which includes radius of curvature at the tip and tip angle,affects the hardness measurement by influencing the nature of the penetration process onthe test surface, because every indenter deforms the specimen surface with a differentgeometry. The controlled indenter geometry can improve the consistency of hardnessmeasurement. In this paper we report the estimation of two important geometricalparameters, radius of curvature and tip angle of a Rockwell indenter by using a simplemethod of image processing and compare the results with those obtained with a traceable 3Doptical profiler. Evaluation of uncertainty in measuremts is carried out as per ISOguidelines (ISO-GUM) and a detailed uncertainty budget is presented. The tip angleestimted is 119.95 degree. The radius of curvature is estimted to be 199.96 ± 0.80μm by image analysis whichagrees well with the value estimated by using optical profiler i.e. 199.12 μm.

Illumination using artificial light sources is common in these days. Many manufacturesare paying for the design of lamps depending on high efficacy and low UV hazards. Thisresearch is focusing on the most useable lamps in the Egyptian markets; high pressuremercury (HPM), metal Halide (MH), and high pressure sodium (HPS). A set up for relativespectral power distribution based on single monochromator and UVA silicon detector forabsolute irradiance measurements are used. The absolute irradiance in (W/m2) in UVA region of the lamps andtheir accompanied standard uncertainty are evaluated.

At NMISA the SI unit for length is realised by an iodine stabilised He-Ne laser, anoptical measurement. In industry most measurements are performed by mechanical probing.Gauge blocks are the link between the optical measurements and the mechanicalmeasurements, and are therefore critical in disseminating traceability. The gauge blocklength is currently determined by wringing the gauge block onto a platen. This islaborious, requires skill and causes contact errors. Since around 1943, there have beenefforts to build a double ended interferometer where gauge block length can be determinedwithout wringing it onto a platen. While there has been a lot of progress in buildingDEIs, to date, there is still no commercially available DEI. We present a collaborationproject between the National Metrology Institute of South Africa (NMISA), the NationalInstitute of Standards (NIS Egypt) and Stellenbosch University (SUN) in South Africa tobuild a double ended interferometer for use at the respective National MetrologyInstitutes. We investigate improvements to the interferometric calibration of gauge blocksand recent developments. The different systems currently in use in the national metrologylaboratories are described and various designs are investigated. Lastly the expectedoutcome of the project will be discussed.