Henri Baumann, A. L. Eichenberger, B. Jeckelmann, R. Clavel, D. Reber, D. Tommasini
THE METAS WATT BALANCE MARK II: FIRST RESULTS

It is nowadays widely accepted, that the future definition of the kilogram will be based on the Planck constant h. A promising experimental approach is the so called watt balance. The Federal Institute of Metrology METAS is developing the watt balance Mark II apparatus. This paper describes the design of the experiment as well as some experimental results. Considering the experimental progress, first results of the Planck constant, should be available at the time of the conference.

Sueli Fischer Beckert
THE CALIBRATION AND MEASUREMENT CAPABILITY AND ITS IMPACT ON METROLOGICAL CONFIRMATION

Calibrations are performed to diagnose the status of equipment and assess their adequacy (or not) to maximum permissible error (MPE). The Calibration and Measurement Capabilities (CMC) established by accredited laboratories should be referenced on valid and updated normative documents where available. Usually, the applied calibration methods should be consistent with the maximum permissible errors for the measuring equipment. This article presents a critical analysis on CMCs provided by accredited laboratories for conventional measuring instruments that have calibration methods defined in recognized standards or documents.

Elisabeth Costa Monteiro, Luca Mari
PRELIMINARY NOTES ON METROLOGICAL RELIABILITY

Concerns regarding reliability are present in all spheres of application. There are several uses of the term according to different fields. This paper reports on the importance of addressing metrological characteristics among requirements for reliability evaluation and discuss about the many uses described in the literature of the term “metrological reliability”, evaluating the need for a harmonized definition of the concept of “metrological reliability” in a future VIM.

Takashi Yamamoto, Masayuki Yamamoto
TECHNICAL ISSUES RELATED TO ISO HARDNESS TEST STANDARDS

The ISO standards for hardness tests, including Rockwell, Vickers and Brinell, have become bloated, compelling users of the standards to pay an excessive amount of attention and cost to comply with them. In essence, good standards should be simple and clear. Experts on hardness tests and creators of standards should give more consideration when making such standards.
From this standpoint, as a manufacturer specializing in the production of hardness test blocks, we present some issues to be improved concerning relatively recent hardness test standards based on theoretical considerations and experimental facts.

John Song, Samuel Low, Thomas B. Renegar, Li Ma
DEVELOPING NIST ROCKWELL HARDNESS DIAMOND INDENTER SRMS BASED ON ISO 6508-3:2015 STANDARD

The ISO 6508-3:2005 standard specified a tight tolerance for the cone flank straightness of Rockwell diamond indenters (0.5 µm for maximum). In the recent issued ISO 6508-3:2015 standard, significant changes on the microform geometrical specification of Rockwell diamond indenters and calibration conditions have been made: the tolerance range for cone flank straightness has been relaxed from “0.5 µm for maximum” to “0.5 µm for average and 0.7 µm for maximum”; and the window size and location for calibration of the Rockwell diamond indenters have been specified. Based on the technical specification of ISO 6508-3:2015, NIST researchers are working with diamond manufacturers to develop the Standard Reference Material (SRM) Rockwell hardness diamond indenters to support U.S. Rockwell hardness standardization.