New trends in standards indicate need for more interlaboratory comparisons and data

Abstract

Current trends in standards development now place, and will continue to place, significantly increased demands on laboratories around the world. Shorter IEC/ISO procedural deadlines and the increasing pace and complexity of standards development require that more work be accomplished in less time. Several trends account for the increasing complexity of measuring instrument standards from IEC TC 29 electroacoustics. One trend is the breadth and rapidity of technological developments in transducers and modern analog/digital electronics. Other trends involve the inclusion in standards of more information regarding uncertainties, test methods, procedures, and EMC (electromagnetic compatibility). This information is needed because these IEC standards are being used to support development of OIML recommendations in legal metrology, as well as national and regional standards and regulations in many countries. The need to produce correct statements regarding measurement uncertainties, methods, and procedures greatly increases the need to acquire extensive, reliable data, especially from interlaboratory comparisons, both for the preparation of new standards, and for the necessary periodic revision of existing ones. Finding resources to meet this need is an important challenge for the field of acoustics. Activities begun in BIPM and other organizations will provide data for primary (but not necessarily secondary) acoustical metrology.