Enabling the use of digital calibration certificates in industrial calibration management systems

Abstract

Metrology has been a slowly digitalizing field in which a significant part of the handling of data has been dependent on paper-based processes. Due to the need for the improved efficiency and reliability of these processes, digitalization has become a major topic of interest in the metrology community. Data formats such as the digital calibration certificate (DCC) have an essential role as an enabler of further digitalization, acting as the harmonized data format for calibration data. Naturally, introducing these data formats into industrial usage sets new requirements with respect to the calibration management and associated systems. Diversity of metrology also means that the systems need to be flexible and scalable to fulfill the needs of actors in the global calibration infrastructure with very different requirements. This paper presents a conceptual approach for enhancing the communications between the existing systems in a calibration ecosystem and enabling DCC-based data exchange with third-party systems using the Beamex calibration ecosystem as an example. Thus, the presented system architecture concept that introduces data and DCC exchange services would provide a solution to enable the use of DCCs on Beamex systems.