Metrology in the modern world

Metrology in the modern world

Metrology in the broadest sense is the science of measurements, methods and means, ensuring their unity, and ways to achieve the required accuracy. Metrology serves as the theoretical basis of measuring technology. metrology deals with the theory and practice of ensuring the uniformity of measurements. And the more measuring technology develops, the more important metrology becomes, creating and improving the theoretical foundations of measurements, generalizing practical experience in the field of measurements and guiding the development of measuring technology.

Measurements are one of the ways of human cognition of nature, combining theory with practical human activity. They are the basis of scientific knowledge, serve to account for material resources, ensure the required product quality, interchangeability of parts and assemblies, improve technology, automation of production, standardization, health and safety, and for many other branches of human activity. Measurements quantitatively characterize the surrounding material world, revealing the laws operating in nature. Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev, the founder of Russian metrology, said this very figuratively: "Science begins... since they start measuring."

Measuring equipment in the broad sense of the meaning of these words means both all the technical means by which measurements are carried out, and the technique of measurement. Hundreds, thousands of billions of measurements are made every day all over the world. In the interests of each country, in the relations between countries, it is necessary that the results of measurements (wherever they are performed) can be coordinated. In other words, it is necessary that the measurement results of the same quantities obtained in different places and with the help of different measuring instruments should be reproducible at the level of the required accuracy.

First of all, this requires uniformity of units of physical quantities and measures that carry out their material reproduction. Ensuring a high degree of uniformity of measuring instruments is one of the conditions for ensuring reproducibility of measurement results. In addition, it is necessary to fulfill a number of other conditions in order to ensure all the qualities of measurement results that are necessary for their comparability and proper use, which is generally called the unity of measurements.

With all the multitude and diversity of enterprises manufacturing measuring instruments, and with an even greater multitude (many times greater) of enterprises, organizations and institutions making measurements and using their results, metrology has created and implemented a system aimed at universal ensuring the uniformity of measurements and uniformity of measuring instruments. This system resulted in a single state service, which is called the metrological service of the country.

Metrology, standardization and measurement functions

The problem of ensuring high quality of products is directly dependent on the degree of metrological maintenance of production. This is, to a large extent, the problem of the ability to correctly measure the quality parameters of materials and components, to maintain the specified technological modes, i.e. to measure many parameters of technological processes, the measurement results of which are converted into control commands.

Currently, it is impossible to name a single field of science, technology, and numerous types of public services in which measurements would not play a big role.

Metrology is organically connected with standardization, and this connection is expressed primarily in the standardization of units of physical quantities, the system of state standards, measuring instruments and verification methods, in the creation of standard samples of properties and composition of substances. In turn, standardization relies on metrology, which ensures the correctness and reproducibility of the test results of materials and products, and also borrows from metrology methods for determining and controlling quality.

Three main measurement functions can be distinguished:

1) accounting of products calculated by weight, length, volume, consumption, power, energy, etc.;

2) measurements of physical quantities, technical parameters, process characteristics, composition and properties of substances carried out during scientific research, testing and control of products, in medicine, agriculture and other industries;

3) measurements carried out to control and regulate technological processes (especially in automated industries) and to ensure the normal functioning of transport and communications.

The most obvious is the influence of metrological characteristics of measurements when performing the first of these functions. The state of the modern weighing industry is such that about 1% of all measured production products remain unaccounted for during the weighing process. A large proportion of all liquid and gaseous products (oil, gas, gasoline, etc.) is not taken into account. Errors of currently operated energy meters (on average 2%) lead to uncertainty in accounting for the same amount of electricity. If these percentages are expressed in absolute numbers for grain, oil, gas, cement, energy, cast iron, steel, fertilizers and other products of extraction and production, then many losses amounting to many hundreds of millions of rubles annually will become even more obvious.

Violation of the unity of measurements, their insufficient accuracy, not always well-thought-out organization of measurements and metrological services bring great losses when performing the second and third functions of measurements in the national economy.

In industry, a significant part of the measurements of the composition of a substance is still made using quantitative or even qualitative analysis. The errors of these analyses are sometimes several times higher than the difference between the quantities of individual components, by which, according to the recipe established for them, metals of different brands, chemical materials, etc. should differ from each other. As a result, there is a deterioration in the quality of machines and mechanisms or even possible serious accidents. Insufficient accuracy of dimensional measurements in the machine tool industry prevents the production of precision machines of the highest class, and in turn, the service life, for example, of bearings produced on insufficiently accurate equipment, is significantly reduced.