Conventional calibration certificates could soon be a thing of the past. Metrology institutes and calibration laboratories worldwide could in future use "digital calibration certificates" (DCC) instead of analog versions. Above all, machine readability would significantly support manufacturing and quality monitoring processes, where digitalization is becoming increasingly prevalent. The aim is to develop universal exchange formats throughout the metrology sector.
Here you can find more detailed information about DCC developments.
An active participation for the DCC development is very welcome. If interested, simply contact 
Shanna Schönhals and Siegfried Hackel per email.
Starting in November 2022, PTB is offering a weekly online forum on the use and implementation of DCCs and related technologies. More information can be found 
here.
The DCC is based on the internationally recognized and proven exchange format XML (Extensible Markup Language). This makes the DCC machine-readable and all information can be transferred directly and automatically to all digitally supported processes. At the same time, cryptographic signatures are used as a security procedure to ensure that the integrity and authenticity of a calibration certificate are maintained. The cryptographic procedures used at the DCC have already been tried and tested for a long time in other areas, for example in the application of the Civil Status Act (registry office), in waste management, or in the procurement system of the federal administration. Furthermore, the DCC already meets the requirements of DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025:2018-03, which is important for accredited laboratories.
A comprehensive documentation of the DCC XML schema can be found 
here. The development of the DCC is running under active cooperation of numerous organizations and persons also outside PTB. These collaborations are organized on the development platform GitLab here.
As a result of the DCC conference in October 2020, several working groups were formed to work with international partners to advance the development and use of DCC:
Active participation in these working groups is very welcome. If you are interested, you can simply contact Siegfried Hackel.
An important element of the DCC is the representation of units and measurement data with measurement uncertainties. For this purpose, a proposal for a data model was developed in the EMPIR project SmartCom: the D-SI. A detailed explanation and examples for the use of the D-SI is published here. Further development of the D-SI also takes place on the GitLab platform. There you can register yourself and with an email to Daniel Hutzschenreuter, be unlocked for the area to the D-SI.
BMWi GEMIMEG-II "Secure and robust calibrated measurement systems for digital transformation".
To ensure that "Made in Germany" also applies in a digitalized world, the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), together with other research partners and companies, has launched the GEMIMEG-II project, which is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) with 12 million Euros. The project will run for three years and started in August 2020. The overarching goal is to drive forward the digital transformation and strengthen the Germany economy.
More information here: Project website
DCC Conference February 2023
The third international DCC Conference 28.2.-2.3.2023 took once again place to focus on recent developments, practical examples for digital calibration certificates and related projects.
More information can be found on the website ptb.de/dcc
DOI: 10.7795/310.20170403DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3522630