Bilateral comparison of an IPRT between KRISS and SIC

Abstract

As a follow-up of a memorandum of understanding signed in 2009 between KRISS of Korea and SIC of Colombia, the two national metrology institutes carried out a bilateral comparison of calibration of an industrial platinum resistance thermometer (IPRT). A protocol that was similar to that of APMP.T-S6 has been agreed and followed in the comparison. The method of the calibration at each laboratory was calibration by comparison against calibrated reference thermometers. The nominal temperatures of the comparison were nine temperatures, including the ice point, between −50 °C and 500 °C. One commercially-available IPRT with α ∼ 0.00385 °C−1 that was prepared by KRISS was calibrated by comparison firstly at KRISS, and then at SIC, and finally at KRISS to assess the drift of the artifact during the comparison. At KRISS, an ice-point bath, three liquid baths and a salt bath were used to provide isothermal environment for the comparison. At SIC, an ice-point bath, two liquid baths and a vertical furnace with a metal equalizing block were used. The claimed uncertainty with k=2 of the calibration at KRISS, excluding the longterm instability and hysteresis of the traveling IPRT, was 30 mK, and that at SIC was 120 mK. The capability of the calibration of the two laboratories from −50 °C to 500 °C showed a good agreement within the claimed uncertainty of the calibration. The largest deviation of the two calibration results was 75 mK at 500 °C.