Glossary

glossar

Inhalt

accreditation

calibration

certified reference materials (CRMs)

interlaboratory comparisons

internal quality control

precision

proficiency test

 

accreditation

Procedure by which an authoritative body formal recognition that a body or a person is competent to carry out specific tasks Note Accreditation does not of itself qualify the laboratory to approve any particular product. However, accreditation may be relevant to approval and certification authorities when they decide whether or not to accept data produced by a given laboratory in connection with their own activities EN 45003

calibration

The set of operations that establish, under specified conditions, the relationship between values of a quantity indicated by a measuring instrument or measuring system, or values represented by a material measure or a reference material, and the corresponding values realised by standards Note

  • The result of a calibration permits either the assignment of values of measurands to the indications or the determination of corrections with respect to indications.
  • A calibration may also determine other metrological properties such as the effect of influence quantities.
  • The result of a calibration may be recorded in a document, sometimes called a calibration certificate or a calibration report.

International vocabulary of basic and general terms of metrology 1993/ 6.11

certified reference materials (CRMs)

Reference material, accompanied by a certificate, one or more of whose property values are certified by a procedure which establishes traceability to an accurate realisation of the unit in which the property values are expressed, and for which each certified value is accompanied by an uncertainty at a stated level of confidence. Notes

  • The definition of a "reference material certificate" is given in ISO Guide 30/4.2
  • CRMs are generally prepared in batches for which the property values are determined within stated uncertainty limits by measurement on samples representative of the whole batch
  • The certified properties of certified reference materials are sometimes conveniently and reliably realised when the material is incorporated into a specially fabricated device, e.g. a substance of known triple-point into a triple-point cell, a glass of known optical density into a transmission filter, spheres of uniform particle size mounted on a microscope slide. Such devices may also be considered as CRMs.
  • All CRMs lie within the definition of "measurement standards" or "etalons" given in the "International vocabulary of basic and general terms of metrology 1984 (VIM)".
  • Some RMs and CRMs have properties which, because they cannot be correlated with an established chemical structure or of other reasons, cannot be determined by exactly defined physical and chemical measurement methods. Such materials include certain biological materials such as vaccines to which an International unit has been assigned by the World Health Organisation.

International vocabulary of basic and general terms of metrology 1993/ 6.14

interlaboratory comparisons

Organisation, performance and evaluation of tests on the same or similar test items by two or more laboratories in accordance with predetermined conditions

ISO/IEC Guide 43

internal quality control

The application of proficiency tests within the scope of the appraisal of test laboratories to the accreditation according to DIN EN ISO / IEC 17025:2000 in this norm as means for the protection of the quality of test and calibration results. At the moment in the field of “mechanical-technological tests” proficiency tests were offered only on a small scale. There are no elaborated programs to pursue the quality of the generated test achievement continuously and to be able to show where necessary an improvement of the test quality. IfEP guarantees the professional conception and realisation of bilateral and multilateral proficiency tests. The assessment of the lab results occurs on the base of certificated authoritative values or the average values ascertained during the proficiency tests of the participants. In the proficiency tests carried out by the IfEP have taken part each time more than 100 laboratories from more than 25 european countries.

precision

closeness of agreement between independent test results obtained under prescribed (stipulated) conditions ISO 3534-1

proficiency test

Determination of laboratory testing performance by means of interlaboratory test comparisons Ermittlung