Reliable materials testing

摘要

Reliable test results are a fundamental and highly topical aspect of materials testing. There are four key elements to reliability: 1. Accuracy: machines must operate with precision, meaning that the average of a set of test results is very close to the reference value; 2. Repeatability: when tests are repeated under the same conditions, the results obtained are closely grouped; 3. Reproducibility: when machines performing the same test are compared, the results are reproducible; and 4. Traceability: the continuous documentation of calibrations and tests makes all results transparent and traceable.