Barry Inglis, Ilya Budovsky
NATIONAL MEASUREMENT LABORATORY AND ITS ROLE IN THE AUSTRALIAN STANDARDS AND CONFORMANCE SYSTEM

The paper gives a brief introduction to the National Measurement Laboratory (NML), Australia's premier institution for measurement science and technology. A particular emphasis is placed on the role NML plays as a key element in the national standards and conformance infrastructure.

T.J. Quinn
INTERNATIONAL METROLOGY: THE EVOLVING ROLE

Tilo Pfeifer, Gerd Dussler, Michael Zacher, Alexander Bai
CAPABLE PROCESSES BY OPTICAL METROLOGY

Today, optical metrology is already an essential factor for manufacturing processes. Within different tasks optical metrology guarantees increasing capability of processes. Optical measurement techniques secure fast and precise process steps. Therefore, optical methods integrated into manufacturing lines are well suited for measurement tasks. Their setups are modular and they have defined interfaces to the electronic periphery. Further, optical measurement techniques are very versatile, flexible and most accurate. They are used more and more for noncontact distance measurement, shape and surface inspection as well as for analysis of dynamic processes. Due to their ability for miniaturisation optical sensors are well suited for the direct use in manufacturing systems and production environment. Thus, the goal of this article is to illustrate the efficient use of optical measurement systems in different manufacturing processes. Detailed examples show that optical metrology is a key factor for sucessful manufacturing. Finally, perspectives and trends of optical measurement techniques in the field of production technology will be presented.

Alessandro Ferrero
ELECTRIC POWER QUALITY MEASUREMENT

The proliferation of non-linear and time-variant loads is causing a number of disturbances on the electric network, from a more and more significant distortion of both currents and voltages, to transient disturbances on the supply voltage. In this respect the electric network behaves as an "healthy carrier" of disturbances, so that a disturbance generated by one customer can be distributed to other customers, causing possible damage to their equipment. The measurement of the quality of the electric power in a network section is therefore becoming an impelling need, especially in a deregulated electricity market, where each actor can be responsible for the injection of disturbances. However, there are still some respects of power quality measurement, from both the methodological and instrumental point of views, that are still unsolved and require to be carefully analyzed. The paper gives a survey of these problems and some indications about the present trends of the research work in this field.