The Industrial Measurements Laboratory is responsible for the provision of calibration services in dimensional metrology.
A major function of industrial measurements Lab. is to provide traceability to National Standards for secondary level laboratories that are operated by industry and government departments. This is achieved by the calibration of their measurement standards at KEBS.
The Laboratory provides calibration facilities for length and related quantities such as angles, surface roughness, flatness.
Objective and tasks
Much of KEBS Industrial Measurements Laboratory’s work is concerned with the metre, which is a base unit of length in the international system of units (SI). It is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1 / 299 792 458 of a second. The metre is realized in accordance with the guidelines published by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) (CCDM "mise en
pratique", 1997), which specify the construction and operating conditions for sources of radiation at a variety of recommended wavelengths.
The calibration fields are divided into following categories:
- Length: -calibration of length measuring instruments such as vernier callipers, gauge blocks,
- Micrometer screw gauges, steel tapes, etc.
- Angle: - calibration of angle measuring instruments e.g. spirit levels, protractors etc.
- Surface texture
Available Facilities
Angle :
The SI unit of the plane angle is the radian (rad) and it is defined as the angle subtended at the centre of a circle by an arc, length of which is equal to the radius. In industry, the unit "degree (°)" is used for angle measurement. It is obtained by the 360th division of the full circle, which is in fact 2p rad. angle.
A degree is divided into sixty minutes ('), and then a minute is further subdivided into sixty seconds (").
Surface Texture:
Surface texture affects the mechanical and physical properties of parts significantly. Required surface texture on the parts can be obtained by choosing and monitoring the suitable manufacturing process. In this way, required physical properties on the parts such as friction, wear, fit, seal, fatigue, adhesion of coatings, electrical and thermal contact, and even optical properties such as gloss, etc., can be adjusted
by manufacturing design.
Measurements of surface roughness are made using stylus equipment (Mahr Perthometer Concept). In KEBS and all of the surface-roughness parameters can be determined (Ra, Rq, Ry, Rz, etc.). Besides, geometry, roughness and depth standards are calibrated with high accuracy in accordance with ISO 4287.
The contact stylus instrument is traceable to the unit metre through our reference roughness standards.
3-Dimension Measurements (Co-ordinate Metrology)
Co-ordinate measuring machines are getting more important in industrial production due to their various applications particularly for measurement of form and distance at the same time (geometric dimensioning and tolerancing). The activities of KEBS in the field of coordinate metrology include
the calibration of gauges and artefacts (particularly cylindrical gauges, taper gauges, thread gauges, taper thread gauges, and special-purpose gauges).
Laboratory Environmental conditions
Dimensional and related calibrations are performed at 20°C. KEBS dimensional metrology facilities have the temperature maintained at (20 ± 1) °C and relative humidity controlled to (50 ± 5) %. |
