Dictionary · Calibration
Calibration hierarchy
The sequence of calibrations from a stated reference to the final measuring system, each calibration depending on the previous one; uncertainty necessarily grows down the chain.
Related terms
More from Calibration
As-found / as-left data
Calibration results recorded before (as-found) and after (as-left) any adjustment or repair. As-found data support reverse-traceability decisions about product accepted with the instrument since its previous calibration.
Calibration practice; NCSLI RP-1
Calibrator
A measurement standard used in calibration — in some fields, a device or material whose assigned value is transferred to the instrument under calibration.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 5.12
Calibration
The operation that, under specified conditions, first establishes a relation between values (with uncertainties) provided by measurement standards and corresponding indications (with uncertainties), and second uses that information to obtain results from indications. Calibration is not adjustment.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 2.39
Metrological comparability of measurement results
Comparability of results traceable to the same reference — what shared traceability buys: results that can be meaningfully compared even from different labs and methods.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 2.46
Adjustment of a measuring system
The set of operations carried out on a measuring system so that it provides prescribed indications corresponding to given quantity values. Adjustment changes the instrument; calibration afterwards re-establishes its relation to standards.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 3.11
Metrological traceability
The property of a result whereby it can be related to a stated reference — usually the SI — through a documented unbroken chain of calibrations, each contributing to the uncertainty.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 2.41