BEnews

John Zwak, Sr. Metrology Engineer and Jim Burns, President participated in the ASTM Committee sessions in November.  John is the Secretary for Committee E20 on Temperature Measurement, and Jim is the Chairman for Subcommittee E20.04.01 on Thermocouple testing where John is also the Secretary.   

This is not only an opportunity to bring Burns’ 47 years of experience to the conversation but to learn a lot from the many other brilliant folks in attendance.

Speaking of brilliant!  As part of the E20 meeting, Greg Strouse from NIST offered a presentation on an amazing technology as a potential replacement for a Standard Platinum Resistance Thermometer, SPRT.

The technology, “Sapphire Whispering Gallery“, has been around for years.  Classic applications leverage the phenomenon of total internal reflection of energy waves, for the development of Oscillators to meet the demands for precision signal generation and processing.    In these applications, the device is generally temperature compensated to reduce temp effects.  This Review of SWG-mode Oscillators  gives a pretty technical, but interesting overview of the technology.

Mr. Strouse and his friends at NIST are exploring a concept that leverages the predictable temperature sensitivity of the Sapphire Whispering Gallery Thermometer, (SWGT) to accurately measure temperature with uncertainties of < 10mK.

Awesome stuff!  We here at Burns will be watch how this technology develops.   Check back with us to see what additional insights are revealed by the great work at NIST.

Post a comment!  I’d love to hear your thoughts on this interesting SWGT idea.

Chuck

The Grinch isn’t going to mess up this year’s Holiday!  Burns Holiday email message on the left … after giving the challenge some thought, our solution on the right:

It’s simple and elegant … just like a lot of the temperature-measurement solutions we come up with around here!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah and Happy Kwanzaa!

Do you hear what I hear?  

Burns’ Metrology gurus, John Zwak and Terry Walsh, share a few insights on how a well designed ice bath and the right process can provide a practical approach to calibration at the Triple Point of Water (TPW). 

To uphold a NVLAP accredited calibration system  (Lab code# 200706-0) in a production environment, it takes  ingenuity, creativity and a deep understanding of the process.  Listen to John and Terry share a brief description of how and why it works.

A recent email to many of Burns clients included a link to a paper on As Found data.  The paper explains the pivotal importance of the TPW to the understanding of As Found data obtained during periodic calibration and the relationship to In-Service performance. 

Do you see what I see? 

Click here to read the paper:   “As Found Calibration Data”

Do you have a point of view on the power of the Triple Point?  How about the importance of As found data to your calibration integrity?  Comment on the BEblog, we’d love to hear from you. 

Chuck