Uncertainty and traceable calibration – how modern measurement concepts improve product quality in process industry

Research and advanced manufacturing demand high-quality measurement. This requires the statement of measurement uncertainty and the access to traceably calibrated instruments (with traceability to an international reference). Traceability is not obvious, however, for all kinds of industry measurements. Certain industries produce products whose quality control is based on the measurement of fuzzy, complex parameters, “attributes”. Many of these parameters are nowadays measured by sophisticated instruments. They are often automated and can perform an increased number of measurements during the day. Traceability is often a problem for this type of instruments. There are solutions to solve their lack of traceability, for example round-robin rings, but they must be handled with care. Quantifying measurement uncertainty may also become problematic, since the establishment of an uncertainty budget is difficult for automated or semi-automated instruments. If traceability is lacking, an important task will be to evaluate the uncertainty of the repeatability of the instrument since this will be an important part of the uncertainty budget. This article discusses problems and solutions, using the attributes paper pulp quality and smell as illustrations.