Dictionary · Calibration
Metrological traceability chain
The sequence of standards and calibrations used to relate a result to a stated reference — the concrete path behind a traceability claim.
Related terms
More from Calibration
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
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
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
Zero adjustment of a measuring system
Adjustment so that the system provides a null indication corresponding to a zero value of the quantity to be measured.
VIM (JCGM 200:2012) 3.12
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