A free-space transmission method has been used for reliable shielding effectivenessmeasurement of the easily available textile materials. Textiles with three different yarndensities were studied for their shielding effectiveness with the help of a vector networkanalyzer and laboratory calibrated two X-band horn antennas. The expressions ofuncertainty estimation have been derived in accordance with the present free-spacemeasurement setup for the calculated SE values. The measurements have shown that anelectromagnetic energy can be maximum shielded up to 16.24 dB with measurement uncertaintyless than 0.21 dB in 8.2 to 12.4 GHz range by a 160.85 μm textile. Thus,a thin textile with a high density can have higher shielding and this property mainlydepends on its intrinsic structure, frequency range and thickness. This study promises thepotential applications of such materials as a very cost effective shielding material atmicrowave frequencies with some modifications.

For some companies, visual inspection has become an essential step when seeking to improve the quality of their products. The aim of this control is to be sure of the perceived quality of the product, which often goes well beyond the quality expected by the customer. For this type of control, the controller should be able to detect any anomaly on a product, characterize this anomaly, and then evaluate it in order to decide if the product should be accepted or rejected. This paper describes how this characterization can be carried out and, more specifically, how to measure the impact of the local environment of an anomaly on the perceived quality of the product.

The weighted inertial piloting of processes presented in this paper is a break-away in terms of the quality of machined mechanical workpieces compared to the traditional piloting carried out by machine setters. However, sometimes one has a stability problem during the piloting phase due to over adjustment. We propose to study the causes of this instability and to develop an approach in order to correct the problems. Once we have reminded ourselves of the basics of weighted inertial tolerancing, we will propose an approach to identify the most probable decentring. The applications of the concepts discussed in this article were tested over a period of two months. The results are very convincing, especially with the elimination of the phenomenon previously observed in identical conditions.

In today’s modern world, plastics are used for a variety of everyday applications fromplastic shopping bags to medicinal applications, but most of these plastics are resistantto environmental influences such as humidity and microbial attack. The ecological problemwe now face in our landfills is the large volume of non-biodegradable plastics, which hasmade the development of biodegradable plastics an urgent matter. Because of thissituation, the Chemical Metrology Group of NMISA (National Metrology Institute of SouthAfrica) has embarked on a collaborative effort with the Fibre and Polymer TechnologyDepartment of KTH (Royal Institute of Technology) in Sweden to develop methods for theanalysis of biodegradable polymers. During the project, commercial and research samplesare analysed with various techniques, such as Pyrolysis-GC-MS, GPC, FTIR, SEM, TGA,TGA-FTIR and DSC. The aim is primarily to evaluate what information can be obtained byPyrolysis-GC-MC and FTIR-TGA with respect to thermal properties and degradation products.Currently polylactide (PLA) is the focus of many studies and it is one of the mostpromising degradable polymers. One trend is to improve the properties of PLA throughaddition of different nanofillers. In this work polylactide nanocomposites are made byblending polylactide (PLA) with zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, halloysite (aluminosilicate)or surface modified montmorillonite (phyllosilicate). The materials are characterized byscanning electron microscopy (SEM) and DSC. The thermal stability and resulting thermaldegradation products are analysed by TGA and Py-GC-MS. The results especially show theinfluence of nanoparticle surface modification on the degradation product pattern.

Every year millions tons of steel are produced worldwide from recycled scrap loads.Although the detection systems in the steelworks prevent most orphan radioactive sourcesfrom entering the furnace, there is still the possibility of accidentally melting aradioactive source. The MetroMetal project, carried out in the frame of the EuropeanMetrology Research Programme (EMRP), addresses this problem by studying the existingmeasurement systems, developing sets of reference sources in various matrices (cast steel,slag, fume dust) and proposing new detection instruments. This paper presents the keylines of the project and describes the preparation of radioactive sources as well as theintercomparison exercises used to test the calibration and correction methods proposedwithin the project.

The behaviour of piston-cylinder operated pressure balances is characterized by thedistortion coefficient λ and zero-pressure effective areaA0 which model the variation of a pressure balance’s area interms of the applied pressure. This paper determines the uncertainties inλ and A0 when utilizing the method ofcross-floating with another pressure balance standard whose parameters and associateduncertainties are known. A limitation that is frequently encountered in many attempts ofthe uncertainty analysis for a pressure balance is that no readily accessible uncertaintyquantification framework for the distortion coefficient is present. As a result theuncertainty in a pressure balance’s area at elevated applied pressures is typicallyunderestimated in the absence of this uncertainty information. We firstly review theuncertainty formulation for a pressure balance generated pressure involving correlationeffects in terms of an implicit multivariate matrix equation approach and then utilizingthe resulting solution present the methodology to consistently perform the uncertaintyanalysis for λ and A0.

Product yield reflects the potential product quality and reliability, which means thathigh yield corresponds to good quality and high reliability. Yet consumers usuallycouldn’t know the actual yield of the products they purchase. Generally, the products thatconsumers get from suppliers are all eligible. Since the quality characteristic of theeligible products is covered by the specifications, then the observations of qualitycharacteristic follow truncated normal distribution. In the light of maximum likelihoodestimation, this paper proposes an algorithm for calculating the parameters of fullGaussian distribution before truncation based on truncated data and estimating productyield. The confidence interval of the yield result is derived, and the effect of samplesize on the precision of the calculation result is also analyzed. Finally, theeffectiveness of this algorithm is verified by an actual instance.

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.

Today a wide range of instruments are available for the rapid roughness quantification ofoptical surfaces but especially for three dimensional measurement methods no standardizedprocess is established. This leads to different results, even if the same specimen istested with similar measurement devices. In order to solve this problem an exemplaryprocess development is described in this paper. To do this firstly the term of roughnessis defined as a surface deviation and then the functionality and importance of filters inroughness measurement as well as the used measurement devices are described. The followingchapter defines the used materials and methods which were used during the measurementprocess. In the last part of this paper the results are discussed and a process assignmentis suggested.

Most research works related to process capability indices assume no gauge measurement errors. However, such an assumption inadequately reflects real situations even when advanced measuring instruments are employed. If we do not take into account these errors, conclusions drawn from process capability are therefore unreliable. In this paper we study the sampling distribution of capability indices Cp''(u,v) in the presence of measurements errors, and when small subsamples data are collected from past “in-control”. We show that using a critical value without taking into account these errors, severely underestimates the α-risk which causes a less accurate testing capacity. To improve the results we suggest the use of an adjusted critical value, and we give a Maple program to get it. An example in a nougat manufactory is presented to illustrate this approach.

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.

Typically, a measurement is regarded as being incomplete without a statement of uncertainty being provided with the result. Usually, the corresponding interval of measurement uncertainty will be an evaluated confidence interval, assuming that the classical, frequentist, approach to statistics is adopted. However, there are other types of interval that are potentially relevant, and which might wrongly be called a confidence interval. This paper describes different types of statistical interval and relates these intervals to the task of obtaining a figure of measurement uncertainty. Definitions and examples are given of probability intervals, confidence intervals, prediction intervals and tolerance intervals, all of which feature in classical statistical inference. A description is also given of credible intervals, which arise in Bayesian statistics, and of fiducial intervals. There is also a discussion of the term “coverage interval” that appears in the International Vocabulary of Metrology and in the supplements to the Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement.

Copilot Pro® is a method for the initial and regular machine-tools setup,developed by the Symme laboratory of the Savoy University and by the TechnicalCenter of Industries of Screw-machining (Ctdec) in France. Its first step is theorganization of the different machining operations, in setup steps, themselves subdividedinto measuring steps. The second step consists in determining the manufacturing dimensionsto measure at the end of each measuring step. Finally, the third step consists in linkingthe manufacturing dimensions to both the correctors and the tool-dimensions, in the aim ofcalculating the corrections that have to be done in function of the deviations measured onthe manufacturing dimensions. With this method, the steering of an industrial workpiece isperformed with two steering parts instead of ten before.

The dissemination of traceability to the International Temperature Scale of 1990 (ITS-90) through comparison calibration of thermocouples, is playing an important role in metrology institutes, secondary laboratories and industrial measurements. The previous studies of the Pt/Pd thermocouples at NIS-Egypt, shows promise of achieving significant improvements uncertainty of temperature measurements up to 960 °C. In this paper we describe the uncertainty assessment on the measurements of the calibration of Pt/Pd thermocouples at fixed point cells up to the freezing point of copper and by the comparison technique following a defined heat treatment at 1100 °C. All the measurements on Pt/Pd thermocouples were carried out using NIS facilities.

The geometric measurement of parts using a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) has beengenerally adapted to the advanced automotive and aerospace industries. However, for thegeometric inspection of deformable free-form parts, special inspection fixtures, incombination with CMM’s and/or optical data acquisition devices (scanners), are used. As aresult, the geometric inspection of flexible parts is a consuming process in terms of timeand money. The general procedure to eliminate the use of inspection fixtures based ondistance preserving nonlinear dimensionality reduction (NLDR) technique was developed inour previous works. We sought out geometric properties that are invariant to inelasticdeformations. In this paper we will only present a systematic comparison of somewell-known dimensionality reduction techniques in order to evaluate their accuracy andpotential for non-rigid metrology. We will demonstrate that even though these techniquesmay provide acceptable results through artificial data on certain fields like patternrecognition and machine learning, this performance cannot be extended to all realengineering metrology problems where high accuracy is needed.

Today’s production industry has to face considerable challenges. Decentralised andcross-linked production processes lead to a highly complex production control and aworldwide financial crisis causes drastic movements in demand. To succeed in businessunder these conditions, production needs to be transparent. One key factor to increasetransparency is the management of measurement processes. The management of measurementprocesses focuses not only on the measurement process itself that enables the decision onthe conformity of a measurand but, beyond that, it considers the acquisition of knowledgethroughout the production process, its validation, processing and feedback into theprocess chain. With proof of measurement process capability, the determination of theoptimal trade-off among measuring and production process, the adjustment of optimalworking points and tolerances is achieved. The management of measurement processes allowsobtaining a maximum benefit from metrology under the consideration of technical,organisational and economical boundary conditions.

The main target of this paper is to determine the seasonal features of the wind speed inthe northwestern of Senegal and to assess the cost of annual energy output using windturbines provided from several manufactures. The wind data used for this study werecollected in four sites located in the northwestern coast of Senegal and cover the periodof one year. The seasonal mean wind speed and the annual distribution curves were obtainedby using the Weibull distribution function. A technical assessment of electricitygeneration from five big wind turbines which power is between 640 kW and 2000 kW and fromsix small wind turbines which power is between 250 W and 10 kW were carried out. Theresults obtained show that the lower cost (0.0265 €/kWh in Sokhar) was observed for thewind turbine Ecotècnia 62. The highest cost was 0.5103 €/kWh (in Gandon) observed for thetechnology of Alize. All wind turbines was better suited to the site of Sokhar with thehighest capacity factor and the lowest cost of output energy.

Process performance can be analyzed by using process capability indices (PCIs), which are summary statistics to depict the process location and dispersion successfully. In some cases, quality characteristic and target are not precise numbers and they are expressed in fuzzy terms, so that the classical capability indices cannot be applied. In this paper we obtain a confidence interval for inertial capability index Cpi (defined by [Pillet, TQM Mag. 16, 202–209 (2004)]) based on fuzzy data and propose a membership function for it.

Understanding the ageing of materials for electronic application is a complex challenge, in particular for composite material as electrically conductive adhesive consisting of a nonconductive polymer binder and conductive filler particles. This research involves a large amount of parameters related to both operating conditions and material structure, which act together. Accelerated testing, with the aim to consume rapidly lifetime without inducing incorrect failure mechanisms, is difficult to optimize and its modelling to describe the ageing process is a challenge. To reach this aim could be interesting for the characterization of the material but above all for the general validity of the proposed methodology.

We have experimentally investigated the MTF of a scientific grade CCD, especially considering its behavior induced by different laser wavelengths (from 470 nm to 633 nm) and varying number of total charge transfers. The MTF measurements were performed using laser speckles and utilizing the single-slit method. The MTF of the sensor was examined from zero to the Nyquist frequency. The results obtained at different wavelengths were compared. It was shown that the spectral behavior of the MTF is negligibly small; moreover the small variation is observed at the high frequency region. It was also observed that the variation of the total number of charge transfers, adjusted by size and location of the region of interest for readout pattern, is within the intrinsic error of the single-slit aperture laser speckle method.