Five Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Temperature Calibration Solution

1. What are the types of temperature sensors or systems to be tested? Once you know the type of your temperature sensors or systems, you can look for the right heat sources to serve your measurement needs. For instance, liquid-in-glass thermometers work best with portable bath instead of drywell.

2. What are the dimensions of temperature sensors or systems to be tested? Temperature sensor or systems come in various shapes and sizes (long and short sheath, diameter etc). Some may require bigger access opening or deeper well to ensure adequate immersion depth. ???

3. What are the temperature ranges of the sensors or systems to be tested? Once you know the operating temperature range of your sensor or systems, you can determine which models of the heat sources and reference sensors that meet your measurement needs.

4. What is the accuracy or uncertainty of the temperature sensors or systems to be tested? Once you know the specifications of your temperature sensors or systems, you can then look for reference system that will give you a 4:1 test uncertainty ratio (TUR).

5. To what extent can the calibration process be automated? Automation of the temperature calibration process has many potential benefits, including increasing productivity, ensuring better temperature measurements, minimizing human bias from calibration process, standardizing calibration procedures, eliminating data collection and transcription errors and reducing safety and ergonomic concerns. Fluke Calibration products offer features to enable automation and provides solutions for completely unattended calibration.?

Supporting solutions from Fluke Calibration

Heat Sources:

1. Fluke 9142, 9143, 9144 Field Metrology Wells

The new 914X Series Field Metrology Wells extend high performance to the industrial process environment by maximizing portability, speed, and functionality with little compromise to metrology performance.

Field Metrology Wells are packed with functionality and are remarkably easy to use. They are lightweight, small, and quick to reach temperature set points, yet they are stable, uniform, and accurate. These industrial temperature loop calibrators are perfect for performing transmitter loop calibrations, comparison calibrations, or simple checks of thermocouple sensors.?

2. Fluke 6109A /7108A Portable Calibration Baths

The portable calibration baths (Fluke 6109A and Fluke 7109A) designed with the process manufacturing professional in mind. Process manufacturing plants for pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and food production utilize many sanitary temperature sensors that require regular calibration. Production must stop during temperature sensor calibration. Therefore, more calibration throughput means less plant downtime. And in businesses where even a few tenths of a degree Celsius can cost thousands of dollars in ruined product, temperature accuracy is crucial to maintaining quality.

3. Fluke 6102, 7102, 7103 Micro-Bath Thermometer Calibrators

Need portability and extreme stability? Fluke 6102, Fluke 7102, and Fluke 7103 Micro-Baths have both.

Wherever you go with your Micro-Bath, you can count on its performance. Each model is stable to ±0.03 °C or better, depending on the fluid you use. Uniformity is ±0.02 °C or better for low uncertainties using a reference thermometer. Display accuracy has been improved to ±0.25 °C for quick calibrations without a reference thermometer. In short, you get the stability and precision of a liquid bath in a dry-well-sized package.

Reference Probes:

1. Fluke 5608, 5609 Secondary Reference PRTs

When looking for improved response time and reduced stem effect in shallow immersion, look for small diameter probes, because the measurement error called stem effect is caused by the diameter of the stem rather than the length of the stem.

Both of these probes Fluke 5608 and Fluke 5609 have Inconel? sheaths and are made using a special manufacturing process, giving them great precision over a wide temperature range. The sensors for these probes are reference-grade platinum and feature four-wire connections with less noisy measurements than two-wire counterparts.

2. Fluke 5640 Series Thermistor Standards Probes

If you want a high-accuracy temperature thermistor probe with excellent stability at a great price, the Model 5640 series Thermistor Standards Probes give you all three in a great package. Why pay for an SPRT when you can get ±0.001 °C accuracy from 0 °C to 60 °C in a calibrated thermistor probe for about one-third the cost of an uncalibrated SPRT alone?

Temperature Readouts:

1. Fluke 1523, 1524 Reference Thermometers

The Fluke 1523 and Fluke 1524 Reference Thermometers from Fluke Calibration?measure, graph, and record PRTs, thermocouples, and thermistors. These thermometer readouts deliver exceptional accuracy, wide measurement range, temperature?logging, and trending, all in a handheld tool you can take anywhere.

2. Fluke 1586A Super-DAQ Precision Temperature Scanner

The 1586A Super?DAQ is the most accurate and flexible temperature data acquisition system on the market. It scans and records temperature, dc voltage, dc current, and resistance for up to 40 input channels and scan speeds as fast as 10 channels per second. The Super-DAQ can be configured for use as a multi-channel data logger in the factory or as a precision reference thermometer for benchtop sensor calibration in the lab.

3. Fluke 1551A Ex/1552 Ex "Stik" Thermometer Readout

Finally, a digital substitute for your mercury-in-glass thermometers! Accurate and repeatable to ± 0.05 °C over its full range, the Fluke 1551A, Fluke 1552A “Stik Thermometer is the new “gold standard" of industrial temperature calibration. Whether working outdoors in environments where potentially explosive gases may be present or on the floor of a processing plant, the intrinsically-safe, battery operated, portable reference thermometer is designed to go where you work.

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