Internet portal on thermal metrology

In most industrial processes, from steel production to food processing, the use of thermal technologies and metrology plays a significant role. However, many industrial users can resort to only limited knowledge in this field. The consequences are production processes which are inefficient, unnecessarily complicated and environmentally polluting. The knowledge with regard to thermal technologies is not evenly distributed and not easily accessible everywhere, which explains why industry can make only little use of it.

More than 40 project partners from 12 European countries under the auspices of the National Physical Laboratory (UK), the Laboratoire National d´Essais (France), the Istituto di Metrologia G. Colonetti (Italy), the ARC Seibersdorf (Austria) and PTB have established the Virtual Institute for Thermal Metrology (evitherm) in order to remedy this deficiency. The core of the project is the now available Internet portal in which the existing expert knowledge as well as the requirements, experience and knowledge of users have been pooled.

The aim of the Virtual Institute is to gather the information and expertise on thermal technologies and thermal metrology in one place, to link it and to evaluate it, as far as possible. Materials data and measuring techniques, standards, service and training offers, directories of suppliers of thermal equipment, etc. are components of evitherm. Special importance was attached to the fast and simple access to data and expert knowledge. The contents were compiled in a practice-oriented way, especially for users from industry. Except for the databases of thermophysical properties, the website can be used free of charge.