​Calibrations and Measurements

​​​​​​​​​The following accredited measurement and calibration services are available at NMISA:​​

Acoustics Ultrasound and Vibration (AUV) Section

The Vibration Laboratories are SANAS accredited (facility number 1600), and offers the following calibration services:

• Calibration of vibration transducers:
  
• Complex sensitivity (magnitude & phase)
• 0,1 Hz to 20 kHz (primary methods)
• 1 Hz to 10 kHz (by comparison to a reference transducer)
• Shock sensitivity calibration of vibration transducers by comparison to a reference transducer
• 50 m/s² to 2 500 m/s²
• 2 km/s² to 50 km/s²
• Vibration analysers and vibration measuring instruments
• 3 Hz to 10 kHz (0,1 m/s² to 200 m/s²)
• Human vibration (hand/arm and full body) monitoring instruments.
• Seismic monitoring equipment
• 3 Hz to 200 Hz
• Charge/conditioning amplifiers

• 0,1 Hz to 20 kHz

• Force transducers

• 10 Hz to 10 kHz

• Impact hammers​
  

​DC Low Frequency and Radio Frequency

The Section offers measurement, calibration, training and consultation services as listed below:

• DC Voltage: Calibration of DC reference standards at 1 V, 1,018 V and 10 V reference and DC voltage sources & meters from 100 mV to 1 kV.

• DC Resistance: Calibration of DC resistance standard sources and meters from 10 µΩ to 1 TΩ.

• Capacitance: Calibration of capacitance standard sources and meters from 1 pF to 10 µF in the 1 kHz to 1 MHz frequency range.
  

• Inductance: Calibration of inductance standard sources and meters from 100 µH to 10 H in the 100 Hz to 1 kHz frequency range

• AC-DC voltage transfer, AC voltage: Calibration of AC-DC voltage difference standards, AC voltage sources and meters in the corresponding nominal and frequency ranges (2 mV to 1 kV, 10 Hz to 1 MHz).

• AC-DC current transfer, AC current: Calibration of AC-DC current difference standards, AC current sources and meters in the corresponding nominal and frequency ranges (2 mA to 100 A, 10 Hz to 100 kHz)

• AC Power and Energy: Calibration of active, reactive and apparent power and energy meters in the ranges of 30V to 480V, 10mA to 160A and for power factors -1 to +1.

• Radio Frequency power: Calibration of calibration factors for coaxial RF power sensors at 0,001 mW – 10 mW (100 kHz – 5 GHz) and absolute power for coaxial RF power meters and sources at 1 mW  at 50 MHz and 0,1 µW -30 W at 100 kHz to 2 GHz)

• Radio Frequency Impedance: Calibration of Voltage Reflection Coefficient (VRC) or Return Loss for single-port and multi-port devices for different coaxial connector sizes such as Type-N ( 75 Ω, 0 -1) at 30 kHz to 2 GHz, PC-7 (50 Ω, 0 -1) at 30 kHz to 18 GHz, PC-3.5 ( 50 Ω, 0 – 1) at 30 KHz to 26.5 GHz, PC-2.4 (50 Ω, 0 – 1) at 50 MHz to 50 GHz BNC and balanced lines (CF)

• Calibration of transmission coefficient in coaxial line for different coaxial connector sizes such as Type K (50 Ω, 0 dB to 60 dB) at 45 MHz to 40 GHz, PC-2.4 (50 Ω) 0 dB to 90 dB at 45 MHz to 50 GHz AND Type N; PC-7; PC-3.5 (50 Ω) 0 dB to 110 Db at 30 kHz to 26.5 GHz

• Radio Frequency Attenuation: Calibration for RF attenuation is performed for various attenuators with different connector types including Type N, PC-7, PC-3.5 ( 50 Ω; 75Ω) 0 dB to 110 dB at DC, Type N(50 Ω; 75 Ω) 0 dB to 110 dB at 30 MHz, Type N; PC-7; PC-3.5 (50 Ω ) 0 Db to 110 dB  at 30 kHz to 26.5 GHz ,

• Calibration of reflection measurement 124 Ω to 600 Ω from 50 Hz to 620 kHz, attenuation measurement 150 Ω , 0 dB to 80 dB from 6 kHz to 5 MHz​

Fibre Optics ​

• Fibre optic power (e.g. fibre optic power meters, return loss meters)

• Wavelength (e.g. OSA, fibre optic sources, LED, FP laser, wavemeter, return loss meter)

• OTDR loss scale deviation (e.g. OTDR)

• OTDR distance scale deviation and location offset (e.g. OTDR)

• Optical length (e.g. fibre reels, fibre standards)​

Temperature and Humidity Laboratory Services​

• Calibration of contact thermometers from -196 °C to 1555 °C:

• platinum resistance thermometers (PRTs) can be calibrated from -196 °C to 660 °C.

• thermistors from 0 °C to 60 °C.

• thermocouples from -80 °C to 1555 °C and
  

• liquid-in-glass thermometers from -25 °C to 280 °C.

• Calibration of infrared radiation thermometers from 0 °C to 1600 °C and blackbody radiation sources from 0 °C to 2000 °C.

• Traceability for contact thermometry is obtained from thermometric fixed point cells from the triple point of argon (Ar) (-189.344 2 °C) to the freezing point of copper (1084.62 °C). (Pt-Rh thermocouples are calibrated at the melting point of palladium (1553.5 °C) using the wire-bridge method.

• Development of calibration methods and transfer traceability to industry and African NMIs.

• Dissemination of temperature scales by calibration of temperature sensors.

• Provide a link between the African region and the rest of the world’s NMIs through comparison measurements in temperature and humidity.

• Fixed points calibration of standard platinum resistance thermometers from Ar to Al points.

• Calibration of other contact thermometers in the temperature range from -80 °C to 1600 °C.

• Fixed point calibration of thermocouples in the temperature range from Sn to Pd points.

• Calibration of surface thermometers in the temperature range from 0 °C to 450 °C.

• Calibration of radiation thermometers and blackbody radiation sources from 0 °C to 2000 °C.

• Calibration of hygrometers, saturated salt solution and humidity-related measuring equipment from 5 %rh to 95 %rh.

• Calibration of dewpoint meters from -75 °C to +70 °C.

• Calibration of water activity meters from 0,05 aw to 0,95 aw.
  

• Traceability for radiation thermometry is obtained from contact thermometers up to 500 °C and from a spectrally characterised monochromatic radiation thermometer calibrated at the freezing point of silver (961.78 °C) or copper (1084.62 °C) from 600 °C.
  

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