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Measurement Services |
Division Contact: Robert Watters
NIST provides access to measurement tools for ensuring measurement traceability to promote innovation, increase competitiveness, and facilitate trade. A key aim is to maximize the impact, importance, relevance, and effectiveness of NIST measurement technology. The principal tools available for establishing
traceability to the International System of Units using NIST measurements
and standards are direct calibration
services, Standard Reference Materials® (SRMs), and Standard Reference
Data. Calibrations and SRMs comprise the most significant measurement
traceability program in the world. The Standard Reference Data Program
provides scientists, engineers, and the general public with compilations
of critically evaluated data necessary to perform state-of-the-art research
as well as product and process development. return
to top of page Calibration services help businesses and other organizations to achieve traceability to nationally and internationally recognized standards or references. Services at NIST include more than 500 high-accuracy calibrations and special tests, available from 30 NIST technical groups. Through these services, each year more than 800 customers from industry, academia, and government link their measurements to the basic and derived units of the International System (SI) of units. NIST also distributes selected publications of general interest, including the Calibration Services Users Guide (SP 250), which describes the calibration services NIST provides; the Calibration Fee Schedule (SP 250 Appendix); Guidelines for Evaluating and Expressing the Uncertainty of NIST Measurement Results (TN 1297); Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SP 811); and Experimentation and Measurement (SP 672). Contact: Robert Watters NIST supports accurate and compatible measurements by certifying and providing more than 1,300 Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) with well-characterized composition or properties, or both. These materials are used to perform instrument calibrations in-situ as part of overall quality assurance programs, to verify the accuracy of specific measurements and to support the development of new measurement methods. Industry, academia, and government use NIST SRMs to facilitate commerce and trade and to advance research and development. Presently NIST SRMs are currently available for use in areas such as industrial materials production and analysis, environmental analysis, health measurements and basic measurements in science and metrology. NIST SRMs are also one mechanism for supporting measurement traceability in the United States. NIST issues a series of publications to assist users in applications of reference materials. A complete listing of publications—including the SP 260 series, which covers a variety of topics related to the development and use of SRMs, brochures, newsletters, needs assessment forms, customer feedback cards, material safety data sheets, and SRM certificates—is available here. Contact: Robert Watters NIST provides scientific and technical data covering a broad range of substances and properties from many different disciplines. These data include well-documented numeric data for scientists and engineers to use in technical problem solving, research, and development. See NIST Scientific and Technical Databases for information on which databases have been thoroughly evaluated. The recommended values are based on data that have been extracted from the world's literature, assessed for reliability, and then evaluated to select the preferred values. These data activities are conducted by scientists at NIST and in university data centers. The NIST Scientific and Technical Databases site contains information on more than 80 electronic databases and on-line systems in many disciplines including chemistry, physics, materials, construction, fire research, and optical character recognition. The NIST Data Gateway helps customers find needed data quickly and accurately by providing lists of NIST databases available free online and NIST PC databases available for purchase. Contact: Robert
Watters
Date
created:December
19, 2001 |