Progress on Vacuum-to-Air Mass Calibration System Using Magnetic Suspension to Disseminate the Planck-constant Realized kilogram

Published

November 1, 2015

Author(s)

Eric Benck, Corey A. Stambaugh, Edward C. Mulhern, Patrick J. Abbott, Zeina J. Kubarych

Abstract

The kilogram is the unit of mass in the International System of units (SI) and has been defined as the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram (IPK) since 1889. In the future, a new definition of the kilogram will be based on precise measurements of the Planck constant. The new definition will occur in a vacuum environment by necessity, so the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is developing a mass calibration system in which a kilogram artifact in air can be directly compared with a kilogram realized in a vacuum environment. This apparatus uses magnetic suspension to couple the kilogram in air to a high precision mass balance in vacuum. Technical details of the suspension technique, the vacuum-to-air calibration system, and vehicles for transferring masses into and out of vacuum will be presented.

Proceedings Title

Proceedings of Asia-Pacific Symposium on Measurement of Mass, Force & Torque

Conference Dates

October 27-30, 2015

Conference Location

Seoul, KR

Conference Title

Asia-Pacific Symposium on Measurement of Mass, Force & Torque

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

Magnetic suspension, mass metrology, Planck constant, revised SI, SI units, watt balance

Citation

Benck, E. , Stambaugh, C. , Mulhern, E. , Abbott, P. and Kubarych, Z. (2015), Progress on Vacuum-to-Air Mass Calibration System Using Magnetic Suspension to Disseminate the Planck-constant Realized kilogram, Proceedings of Asia-Pacific Symposium on Measurement of Mass, Force & Torque , Seoul, KR, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=919549 (Accessed May 12, 2026)

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