Dictionary · Calibration
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.
Related terms
More from Calibration
Metrological traceability to a measurement unit
Traceability whose stated reference is the definition of a unit through its practical realization — "traceable to the SI" in its precise sense.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 2.43
Calibration diagram
A graphical expression of the relation between indication and corresponding measurement result, showing the strip of estimated uncertainty around the relation.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 4.30
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
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.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 2.40
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
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