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Bundeswehr Logistics Office
Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
German Armed Forces
Test & Measurement Equipment
CALIBRATION OF LARGE NUMBER
OF TEST & MEASUREMENT
EQUIPMENT
LtCol Gerhard Mihm
1
Technical Center for Information Technology and Electronics
Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
 Background:
 Project manager for Test & Measurement Equipment and Project
manager for Calibration of the German Armed Forces
 Workload: 200.000 pieces of equipment to be calibrated, 75.000
calibration per year, 8000 different part numbers
 Aim is to ensure that test & measurement equipments in use fulfill
the requirements for the measurements to be taken
 Aim is to do the calibrations efficiently and most economic by
ensuring to meet the needs of the customers and in accordance with
existing standards (ISO 9000, ISO 17025, ISO 10012)
Technical Center for Information Technology and Electronics
Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
Learning Objectives:
 Benefit of ISO 10012: Standardisation of requirements for test &
measurement equipment
 Benefit of storing specifications of metrological confirmation in a
central database
 Reducing number of calculations of measurement uncertainties for
test & measurement equipment to be calibrated in accordance with
ISO 17025
Technical Center for Information Technology and Electronics
Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
ISO 10012:2003 is the ISO standard that specifies generic
requirements and provides guidance for the management
of measurement processes and metrological
confirmation of measuring equipment used to support
and demonstrate compliance with metrological
requirements. It specifies quality management
requirements of a measurement management system
that can be used by an organization performing
measurements as part of the overall management
system, and to ensure metrological requirements are
met.
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Technical Center for Information Technology and Electronics
Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
I. Responsibility of the Projectmanager
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Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
Introduction Of Materiel
- In compliance with the existing logistic system
Logistic Support
UN-Missions
EUFOR
ISAF
KFOR
UNIFIL
ENDURING FREEDOM
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Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
Introduction Of Materiel
- more than just purchasing
- maintenance concept and supplementary equipment
repair concepts must exist
- integration in logistic system mandatory
- material / products used should be as standardized as
possible to reduce variety of P/N.
Technical Center for Information Technology and Electronics
Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
Introduction Of Materiel
Phases of planning and introduction
Analysis
Planning
Detection of Demand
Introduction
Covering Of Demand
Use
Use Of Products
Technical Center for Information Technology and Electronics
Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
Analysis
- Test & Measurement Requirements
- Identification of the respective cases of application
and their requirements
- Definition of physical quantities to be measured
Analysis
Planning
Detection of Demand
Introduction
Covering Of Demand
Use
Use Of Products
Technical Center for Information Technology and Electronics
Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
II. Documentation and repair
Technical Center for Information Technology and Electronics
Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
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Technical Manuals for repair and inspection
Technical training includes
- handling of test & measurement equipment
- Understanding of the meaning and use of technical documentation
necessary characteristics for repair and technical examination of the
respective product are the baseline for the selection of the test &
measurement equipment to be used
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Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
III. Metrological supervision / calibration
Technical Center for Information Technology and Electronics
Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
 For the metrological supervision the German armed forces - like other
partner nations in NATO - is staffed with military calibrators with the
necessary technical skills and documentation, the necessary equipment for
the measuring instruments and test sets in the homeland as well as for the
calibration in mission.
 In principle it is aimed to be able to carry out the calibration in own
calibration facilities provided the calibration is technically and economically
rectified. The measuring values recorded during calibration must be
documented and be traceable to national standards.
 For the calibration own technical regulations are published by the
responsible project management and complemented or refined by the
calibration laboratory with special calibration procedures if necessary.
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Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
 Every measuring instrument and test set to be calibrated is
grasped in a central database:
 P/N, NATO Stocknumber, In-Service Support manager
 - on which technical basis the calibration of the measuring
instrument and test set occurs (e.g. standard)
 - which demands for the calibration are made (e.g. parameters,
specifications)
 - through whom the calibration and after which time expiry or
other signs to be grasped the recalibration has to occur.
Technical Center for Information Technology and Electronics
Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
Metrological confirmation
Technical Center for Information Technology and Electronics
Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
 The project management for test measurement equipment has to consider
and assess the calibration or measuring process with the aim of a metrological confirmation according to ISO 10012: it is checked, to what extent the
measuring instrument and test set is suitable for the respective use case,
the necessary regulations and documents for the respective measurement
equipment and test set have to be provided and published, the necessary
measures are provided for the supervision of the calibration as well as the
calibration equipment.
 The demand for the procurement of the necessary measuring instrument
and test set are fixed due the metrological confirmation. These demands for
the procurement are published in a data sheet and form the baseline for the
necessary technical documentation for calibration of the test & measurement
equipment. The holder of the measuring instrument and testing set will be
informed by the data sheet basically any time of the measuring values and
their tolerances checked during calibration.
Technical Center for Information Technology and Electronics
Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
Technical Center for Information Technology and Electronics
Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
Equipment of the calibration labs /
calibration center of the German armed
forces
Technical Center for Information Technology and Electronics
Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
 To achieve a unified equipment of the calibration labs of the armed forces and to be
able to carry out the calibration actually and efficiently, the test and measurement
equipment is summarized into special functional groups (for example: functional group
of multimetres, oscilloscopes, torque wrenches). On the baseline of the
measurements and tolerances documented in data sheets of the test and
measurement equipment summarized in the respective functional group the selection
of suitable lab equipment for the calibration occurs.
 Compared with U.S. the distances between military installations in Germany are
relatively short. Therefor transportation of goods and products, materials is paid by the
weight independent from the distance between the sender and receiver. As the test
and measurement equipment from the troops has to be send via the existing
transportation system in use to the tasked calibration laboratory for the calibration
needed, the calibration labs of the German armed forces were integrated into one
calibration center and were optimized on special functional groups. By summarizing
calibration jobs of the same kind into one specified calibration laboratory, only test and
measurement equipment agreed for this calibration lab can be calibrated. On this
occasion, a reduction of necessary jobs were achieved with at the same time higher
availability of needed jobs, and the possibility of further optimization and possible
automation of the job.
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Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
Setting up standard procedures for
calibration of test & measurement
equipment for automation
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Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
 The use of automated jobs assumes the knowledge of the necessary procedure steps
of the calibration as well as the knowledge of the necessary and with the technical
equipment in place achievable measuring inaccuracy. Covered to the agreed
calibration a measuring uncertainty consideration takes place. For the respective
functional group, pattern procedure instructions are defined for the calibration as well
as the consideration of the measuring insecurity. The technical specifications of the
used lab-standards and their insecurity contribution form the baseline.
 The agreed specifications in the data sheet of the test & measurement equipment are
compared to the technical specifications of the lab job to be able to ascertain, to what
extent the calibration of the test & measurement equipment can be carried out with
this lab job, in particular the relation between the item to be calibrated and the
"theoretically" attainable measuring exactness of the lab job is obtained.
 Beside the backup of the necessary technical equipment for the calibration of the test
& measurement equipment the Advantage of this approach is the optimization of the
lab job to the calibration needed, the inquiry of not sufficient measuring exactness as
well as too high demands for the lab standards which are not claimed by the test &
measurement equipment to be calibrated.
Technical Center for Information Technology and Electronics
Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
Gerät
Bezeichnung
Datenblatt-Nr.
Kalibrator
Fluke 5520A
Manual
Prüfling
Gossen Metrawatt MA 4H
Manual
Ux = UKal + δUKal + δUx +
δUTherm
δUx = 0.1 • δUSk
Ix = IKal + δIKal + δIx
δIx = 0.1 • δISk
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Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
V. Conclusions
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Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration
V. Conclusions
Besides, by the systematic construction oriented process of calibration places – the
German armed forces call it “job modules” the calibration could be supported
normative and be standardized in spite of the complexity of doing many different
calibrations for similar equipment with different needs and the uncertainty of people
involved.
Though this reduces the variety of calibrations done by single labs and their
engineers in the jobs, however, it raises the specialization degree by synergetic
effects and decreases the processing time of a calibration. Together with a
standardization of the measuring instrument park of the German armed forces – an
efficiency increase could be achieved with concurrent control of the processes
analog to ISO 10012.
Technical Center for Information Technology and Electronics
Test- and Measurement Equipment / Calibration