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DKD

6. Pressure and Vacuum

Christian Elbert

More than 80 laboratories are currently represented in the Technical Committee ʺPressure and Vacuumʺ. The broad mix of participants including equipment manufacturers, users working in in-house laboratories as well as service providers ensures that the different interest groups are adequately represented. Besides, the fact that the chairman also participates in committees of the German Accreditation Body (DAkkS) and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action also helps ensuring the coordination of interest which is further intensified through the regular participation of employees from DAkkS and PTB in the meetings of the Technical Committee.

These meetings usually held on an annual basis serve as a communication platform to promote the mutual exchange and to facilitate discussions on current topics of metrology. The challenges presented to calibration laboratories by the industry include, for example, the calibration of small differential pressures at high static pressures as well as the constantly increasing demands regarding the accuracy of pressure measurements.

Besides current tasks, the different internal working groups of the Technical Committee work on fundamental specialized topics, in cooperation with PTB. For instance, there has been a revision of the calibration guideline DKD-R 6-1. The first version was published several years ago and has since been used as a kind of basic document. Its translation into various languages and its use in a corresponding EA guideline underline its global significance. A similar success has been achieved by the Working Group ʺVacuumʺ which deals with particularly low pressures. Here, the guideline DKD-R 6-2 has provided some kind of basic groundwork.

Moreover, the Technical Committee organises and conducts interlaboratory comparisons. These comparison measurements help the accredited laboratories to demonstrate their technical competence, thus proving their capabilities and guaranteeing the customers a high level of expertise with regard to their service portfolio.

Trends and future-related topics do also form part of the Committee’s agenda and are regularly discussed. In the digital age, special emphasis is being placed on topics such as electronic generation and transfer of calibration data. Interested guests are always welcome. Information about current events can be found on the DKD website.