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AUGUST 2007 NEWS

 

UK Satellite Mission Receives Global Support

TRUTHS (Traceable Radiometry Underpinning Terrestrial- and Helio- Studies) should improve tenfold the accuracy of Earth observation satellites used to deliver climate change data. The programme will launch a calibration laboratory into space to help settle international debates around climate change and provide a robust statistical baseline from which to monitor and predict changes in the Earth’s climate.

Highlighted in the Stern review, (Sir Nicholas Stern's report into the economic impact of climate change) a provision of data of sufficient accuracy would improve the predictive quality of climate models such as those of the UK Hadley Centre.

Initially proposed over five years ago, TRUTHS has been sourcing the levels of financial support needed to covert it from theory to a fully-fledged satellite mission.

Recent reports from the United Nations, the World Meteorological Organisation and the US Academy of Sciences all call for a spaceflight mission designed to achieve exactly what TRUTHS has established to deliver.

The US Academy of Sciences has even recommended such a mission as one of the four priorities for US spaceflight by 2013.

We’ve seen a recent surge in recognition around the world that we need more accurate data about our climate,” explained Dr Nigel Fox, NPL’s lead scientist on TRUTHS.
“This can only be good news. With so many influential organisations calling for a TRUTHS-like mission we hope to be moving from scientific theory to spaceflight very soon.

Assessments of climate change and the consequential scale of its impact depend on accurate data from scores of Earth observation satellites.

They ought to provide unequivocal evidence to support national and international legislation, but most Earth observation data has been arguable.

“We just don’t know if the instruments are really accurate enough once they’ve been in space for a couple of years,” Fox said.

What we do know is they all seem to produce slightly different results, and that gives a lot of unnecessary wriggle room to those who dispute the evidence for human origins of climate change. The uncertainty of the data allows the sceptics to exist.

According to the scientists, the problem lies with calibration.

Delicate measuring devices on Earth, such as those used in medical and high-tech industries are regularly calibrated against primary physical standards held by national measurement institutes such as NPL.

Instruments in space cannot work like this - they are finely tuned before they leave the Earth.

“But after that we just don’t know,” Dr Fox explained. “Even if these sensitive instruments survive the violence of a rocket launch, their sensitivity changes over time. But we don’t really know by how much.”

It’s not logistically or financially viable to bring these instruments back down to Earth for a service every few months.

“They can’t come to us so we’ll sort it out in orbit,” commented Dr Fox.
’TRUTHS’ idea is to have a master device in orbit, against which all other Earth observation satellites can be tested and calibrated. It should ensure that they will all be working off the same measurement benchmark.

The strategy also reduces costs as each individual satellite does not need to be equipped with its own individual suite of calibration tools.

Although the needs of climate science are perhaps the most demanding in terms of accuracy, such a mission would also serve as a reference to underpin the quality of data that is being generated and processed as part of the European GMES initiative and also that of GEO.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by National Physical Laboratory, www.npl.co.uk.

Read press releases at: http://www.scenta.co.uk/Home/1703267/uk-satellite-mission-receives-global-support.htm and http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070817104512.htm.

 

Aeroflex Opens New Regional Service Center in Singapore

“This is yet another step in our commitment of supporting customers globally. This strategy includes worldwide service centers that mirror our customers' design, manufacturing and distribution centers,” said Ryan Panos, vice president of sales, ATS, Aeroflex, Inc.

Located next to Singapore Science and Technology Park in the Technopreneur Centre in Ayer Rajah, the new service center will be the operational hub for ATS products in the Asia-Pacific region. The center will provide regional support to customers, sales teams, direct service operations and third-party service channels.

“Aeroflex greatly values its relationship with customers in the Asia Pacific region,” said Panos. “This new service center enables us to add greater value for our Asian customers by providing a convenient and cost-effective location to calibrate and service their instruments quickly, ensuring the least amount of downtime.”

The Singapore facility will provide service and support for the entire range of Aeroflex test products. It will ramp to full service in phases, first providing calibration and repair service for general purpose test and measurement instruments, then wireless test instruments, followed by avionics and military/aerospace test instruments.

The Aeroflex team in Singapore has significant technical experience in calibration and maintenance of electronic test equipment. The team spent many months traveling to Aeroflex worldwide locations to become proficient in the service and support of Aeroflex instruments and commercial systems.

The Aeroflex Singapore Service Center is located in the Technopreneur Centre at 20 Ayer Rajah Crescent, #07-27, Singapore, 139964, phone: +65 6873 0991, fax: +65 6873 0992, e-mail: apac.services@aeroflex.com. Additional information concerning Aeroflex Incorporated can be found on the company's web site: www.aeroflex.com.

 

SA Accreditation Body Legislated as Public Entity

The South African National Accreditation System (Sanas) has become a public entity, as opposed to a section 21 company, following the signing of the Accreditation Bill in the first quarter of the year.

The Bill is now known as No19 of 2006: Accreditation for Conformity Assessment, Calibration and Good Laboratory Practice Act, 2006.

The Act provides for recognition of Sanas as the only accreditation body in South Africa that is involved in conformity assessment, calibration and monitoring for good laboratory practice compliance.

The Act clearly demonstrates the intended use of accreditation in supporting public policy objectives with regard to health, safety and broad-based black economic-empowerment compliance issues, Sanas said.

According to the Act, in any legal proceedings, documents like calibration certificates, test reports, inspection reports and certification reports issued by accredited bodies, and signed by individuals deemed by Sanas to be competent to do so, may be used as evidence in court.

Misuse of accreditation, including misrepresentation of data in the reports mentioned above, will therefore constitute an offence, Sanas clarified.

Sanas' change to a public entity has necessitated compliance with a number of requirements provided for under the Act. For example, the Sanas board of directors will now be appointed by the Minister of Trade and Industry.

Members should have sufficient knowledge, experience, or qualifications, relating to the functions of Sanas and the responsibilities of the board, including business management, marketing, international and regional accreditation, standardisation and technical regulatory matters.

 

ILAC Celebrates 30 Years

ILAC is the international cooperation of laboratory and inspection accreditation bodies which this year celebrates its 30th anniversary. One of the primary aims of ILAC is the removal of technical barriers to trade.

Imagine you are importing toys from another country. The toys have been tested in that country by a laboratory which says it meets international safety standards. But how do you convince your authorities that the tests –and results – are genuine?

That dilemma was a major impediment to international trade 30 years ago, but today, thanks to a handful of pioneers, things have changed for the better.

The ability of authorities to trust technical standards and procedures from different countries reaches an important milestone this year - with the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) celebrating 30 years of helping the world's economies overcome technical barriers to trade.

ILAC’s evolution was prompted by the Tokyo round of international trade negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The outcome was the GATT Standards Code, an agreement between a number of the member states encouraging recognition of the equivalence of different standards, and the variety of testing and accreditation regimes.

ILAC’s Chair, Daniel Pierre said: “The first conference on International Laboratory Accreditation, was convened in Copenhagen in 1977 by Mr Per Lund Thoft of the Ministry of Trade, Denmark with the support of Dr Howard Forman of the US Department of Commerce. Twenty countries from around the world, the EEC Commission and ISO accepted their invitation.”

The conference gave countries that already had, or were planning accreditation schemes an opportunity to compare notes and experiences. The delegations with practical experience were The National Testing Board of Denmark (1977), NVLAP US Department of Commerce (1976), BSI's System of the Registration of Test House, UK (1977) NATA - Australia (1947) and TELARC - New Zealand (1973).

“The outcome of that first ILAC conference was the idea that mutual recognition agreements between accreditation bodies meant any laboratory, anywhere could have their test results recognised as reliable. ILAC from its inception has worked to create an international framework to support international trade through the removal of technical barriers. This is now recognised through the ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) [1].

Fifty eight signatories, representing 46 economies have now signed the ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement, enhancing the acceptance of products and services across national borders,” Mr Pierre said.

Further information about ILAC is available from the website at http://www.ilac.org/aboutilac.html.

 

Emerson’s New European Flow Centre

Emerson Process Management announces that its purpose-built European Flow Centre is now open for business. This world class flow technology centre offers flow device manufacturing facilities for Emerson’s Micro Motion®, Rosemount® Flow, and Brooks® Instrument measurement products, and provides a fast turnaround for the supply, configuration and calibration of a wide range of devices. The facility offers extensive product demonstration and customer training areas and is also the headquarters for sales and support staff in the Emerson Customer Service Centre. This area is organised so that enquiries are channelled to native speakers covering the main European languages.

The support team has the product knowledge and application experience to guide customers through the process of selecting and configuring the best flow solution for each application. The wide choice of Emerson products and technologies available means that every flow measurement challenge can be addressed in the most cost effective and efficient way.

Located between the towns of Arnhem and Utrecht in The Netherlands, the impressive centre has over 9.000 sq.m of floor space. A major feature of the European Flow Centre is its fully traceable state-of-the-art calibration facilities, with six individual test areas for different products and flow ranges. Some of these facilities have already been certified by NMi and others are in the approval process. The calibration of weighing scales, and temperature and pressure transmitters have been performed in accordance with ISO 17025.

Customers throughout Europe have been quick to realise the benefits of dealing with the new, strategically located centre for the testing and calibration of the wide range of Emerson products including Coriolis, magnetic flow, vortex, thermal mass flow, and variable area meters. There is also a special “clean room” for assembly and test of the well known Brooks Instrument precision flowmeters in sterile conditions.

“We are delighted with the response from our customers following the opening of our European Flow Centre,” commented Andy Dudiak, vice president of Emerson Process Management’s Flow business. “The availability of world class, local resources means we are able to respond rapidly to meet all our customer’s needs. Europe is an important market for us and our investment in this facility illustrates Emerson’s commitment to customer service and support in Europe.”

The Customer Service Centre, located within Emerson’s European Flow Centre, is open from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm providing access to sales or technical information in a local language for customers across Europe. The multi-lingual operators have been trained across the product range to provide a high level of pre and post sales service and technical support. Local stocks of popular lines and the ability to configure devices to customer specifications, has improved the delivery time across a wide range of products.

The training facility offers a wide range of courses and hands-on training to customer engineers and operators and a new demonstration area and a factory acceptance test area are available for customer inspections and witnessed testing.

Contact Information:
Emerson Process Management, Horsfield Way, Bredbury, Stockport SK6 2SU, UK
Telephone: 0870 240 1978 (UK) +44 870 240 1978 (Int)
Fax: 0870 240 4389 (UK) +44 870 240 4389 (Int)
Email: uk-irelandsales@EmersonProcess.com
Web: www.EmersonProcess.eu

 

16th Fisher Science World

Fisher Scientific UK announces that the 16th Fisher Science World will take place at the Reebok stadium in Bolton on Thursday 13 September 2007

The event is free and is designed for all those involved in the purchase or specification of laboratory products. With over 80 leading manufacturers of laboratory products attending, this event promises to be one of the best yet. Included in the event is the free seminar programme, covering both laboratory and safety issues. The seminars aim to be both informative and informal, giving attendees the opportunity to discuss the topics covered with experts in their field.

There will also be live demonstrations taking place throughout the day, giving attendees the chance for a hands on opportunity to see new products from Fisher Scientific's extensive range.

All visitors to Fisher Science World will receive free refreshments; a free lunch, a free portfolio organiser and free Fisher Scientific discount vouchers.

 

Calibration Services for Nanotechnology Metrology Instruments from CEMMNT

The Centre of Excellence in Metrology for Micro and Nano Technologies (CEMMNT) (www.cemmnt.co.uk) has expanded its measurement, characterisation and design capabilities for industry to provide extensive calibration and test services through its UKAS accredited partners which include the National Physical Laboratory and Ametek Taylor Hobson. CEMMNT delivers a fast turn-around service to re-certify standard samples, calibrate metrology instrumentation and measure components. New standard samples are available for verifying the performance of stylus, optical, scanning probe, coordinate measuring machines and similar instruments. Artefacts, such as 1-D and 2-D grid plates, linescales and graticules, specifically designed for microscopy instruments can be supplied or re-verified.

Customer samples can be calibrated traceably for critical dimensions, texture, straightness and roundness to internationally recognised standards. A wide range of parts and components can be measured calibrated or certified. Optical lenses, flats and spheres can be tested for form, asphericity and flatness. Dimensions can be determined for engineering components including spheres, plugs, rings, gauge blocks and length bars. Equipment such as autocollimators, angle gauges, polygons, instrument tables, clinometers, prisms and telescopes can all be calibrated and certified.

CEMMNT additionally provides services to calibrate metrology instrumentation either at client sites or in partner centres of excellence.

 

ASQ Establishes Presence in India

The American Society for Quality (ASQ) has identified India as an area of high interest for quality methodologies, and has hired its first ASQ staff member in India. Manoj Narula has been named assistant general manager of ASQ’s office in New Delhi, India, with additional staff members scheduled to be added according to future operational needs.

Narula most recently was an employee of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), where he was involved with the FICCI Quality Forum. He has professional experience in engineering, as well as newspaper and broadcast journalism, and corporate communications. He has worked for PWD Bihar; Business India and India Today newspapers; India TV; and Reliance Industries.

ASQ in India will address the need to close the ‘quality gap’ and give customers and partners a stronger assurance that quality is being approved in both products and services. ASQ in India will also serve the needs of existing and future ASQ members in India by developing and implementing programs that give meaningful value to them.

“Bringing quality training and certification to India is in line with our vision to make quality a global priority,” said Paul Borawski, executive director and chief strategic officer of ASQ. “Assisting the corporations, business leaders and quality professionals in training the work force to produce quality goods and services is good for both India and the many multinational corporations that do business there.”

For more information about ASQ in India, click here.

 


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