Manufacturing a chain logically starts with manufacturing the first link, thus is logically started a metrological traceability chain

摘要

Many people still struggle with the concept ‘metrological traceability’ and have trouble when attempting to define it.Yet, it is basically simple: metrological ‘‘trace’’ability is about our ability to demonstrate the ‘‘trace’’ along which we can show how our measurement result is connected to a commonly agreed reference. Since a measurement is always a comparison, we need a reference against which we can perform such a comparison. That reference can be:(a value of) a measurement unit, a measured value of a measurement standard (calibrator, mostly called a CRM),or a measured value obtained by a commonly agreed reference measurement procedure, along a ‘‘track’’ or ‘pathway’’ consisting of a transparent, unbroken chain of links. Hereby, ‘calibrator’ is meant to be a material, not a person.