Featured Products of The Month

This month we feature not a sensor but some of the optional, essential elements in a traceable temperature measurement system: a set of new primary standards. These are fixed point (temperature) references that enable a reasonably well equiped secondary or industrial calibration laboratory to create the needed portion of the International Temperature Scale of 1990 (ITS-90) in their own lab. This is well-suited for those locations where extensive re-certification of contact temperature sensors is required and/or the cost of external calibration certification has become a major cost, precision or time response item. With these standard devices and the appropriate interpolating sensor and holding baths, the ITS-90 can be reproduced to within a few milli-Kelvin or better over the temperature range -38.8344 °C to 419.527 °C. Know, too, that Hart Scientific makes a much wider range of cells in the more common, but more fragile, quartz enclosures and those carry even smaller uncertainties, higher prices and require more careful handling.

Hart Scientific's Low-cost, High-precision Fixed Point Thermometry Standards

Hart Scientific has recently released three more temperature standards designed to make primary temperature calibrations easier and more feasible in secondary and industrial laboratory environments. These new standards are ITS-90 fixed-point cells covering the melting (or freezing) points of Indium (156.5985°C), Tin (232.928°C), and Zinc (419.527°C) in addition to their existing stainless steel cells at the Triple Point of Water (0.01 °C), the melting (or freezing) points of Mercury (-38.8344 °C) and Gallium, (29.7646 °C). The latter cell is very useful in establishing calibration of devices used near room and human body temperatures and carries an Expanded Uncertainty (k=2) of 0.0001 °C (0.1 milli Kelvin). Hart guarantees their cell specifications and they can be verified through an optional accredited certification in their primary temperature lab. They also guarantee that the Gallium cells will maintain their uncertainty of 0.0001 °C for at least five years.

Unlike traditional quartz-encased cells, these stainless steel–encased cells do not require transporting by hand and are much less susceptible to accidental breakage. They are sized for use in Hart’s 9260 Mini Fixed-Point Apparatus, which automates the realization of melting and freezing plateaus within the cells and significantly reduces technician training requirements. They use ultra pure (>99.9999%) materials, so they provide uncertainties rivaling those of traditional quartz cells while costing less to buy and maintain.

These new metal cells provide a very cost-effective set of ITS-90 fixed reference points from which one can realize the ITS-90 scale, with the appropriate interpolation device, over the range -38.8344 °C to 419.527 °C, with very small uncertainties. The Triple point cell, for instance, at 0.01 °C, carries an Expanded Uncertainty (k=2) of less than 0.001 °C and reproducibility of 0.0001 °C.

Upcoming Meetings, CFPs etc.

International Scientific Workshop Radiation Measurements of the Bodies with Unknown Emissivity
November 3 - 6, 2003, Prof. Dariy Svet is involved in organizing the program, plus there is no registration fee.
The radiation measurement error achieved in modern metrology laboratories is 0.001 degree at 2000 K.
However, when the temperature of nonblack bodies is measured by radiation methods, the errors are hundreds and thousands times more. This Workshop is dedicated to solutions of this problem in (infrared) radiation thermometry.
For additional information, do not hesitate to contact Elena Kuznetsova:Tel.: 007 (095) 363 50 32/33
E-mail:lena@mayer.ru .

Check the Meetings page for many more meetings and dates

NEW Pages of Interest -May 2003

SARS :Thermal mager Conference Information
On May 30, 2003, SPRING Singapore, the National Metrology Centre for Singapore, held a special Conference to exchange information on the selection, testing and use of Infrared Thermal Imagers in performing mass detection of people with a slight fever (38 °C or higher) as a means to screen for possible SARS-infected persons. This page provides a summary of the conference program and information on the presentations with links to each of the presentation slide sets.

NEW Links of Interest -May 2003

Distributors and Multiple Product Line Vendors Page

Electronic Temperature Instruments Ltd (ETI Ltd)(UK)
ETI Ltd has developed a reputation as a British manufacturer and supplier of quality and value-for-money temperature instrumentation.

Toky Electrical Co., Ltd. (China)
Toky's home is Zhongshan City where the economy is prosperous, and the people are nice. Founded in 1988, they make a range of electronic indicators for temperature measurerment and control.

Thermistor Thermometer Vendors Page

Hyper-Sense Technology Co., Ltd (Taiwan)
A manufacturer and distributor of thermistors, sensors, varistors & fuses

Wavelength Electronics, Inc (USA)
Manufacturers of specialized temperature sensors and controllers for laser diode assemblies and related electronics temperature control equipment used in R&D and production.

Links Page

Chemical Engineering Links
A Chemical Engineering Web Site consisting of many links categorized in the following areas: Basics, Directories, Education, Health, Safety, and Environment, Heat Transfer and Thermodynamics, Journals and Magazines, Organizations and Societies, Pharmaceutical, Process Measurement and Control, Pulp and Paper, Separation, Services and Software.

Feedback and Temperature Control
Introduction to the effects of feedback using a PID temperature controller as a case study. An interactive simulation is provided.

MAXIMO-Users.net
A 24 hour source for MAXIMO and seemingly endless sources of maintenance information.

Thermocouple Vendors Page

JSC Teplopribor (Russia)
A manufacturer of many speciatly industrial temperature sensors including disposable thermocouples for liquid metal temperatures and liquid steel sampling devices.

Thermal Imaging Services Page

Best Infrared Services Inc.(USA)
BEST Infrared Services was founded by Michael Bivens, a veteran thermographer, in 1989 scanning mostly for the utility plants, power distribution, substations and many specialized research and development projects.

Chemical & Infrared INSPECTIONS, LLC (USA)
Professional Services Assisting Industrial, Commercial and Residential Customers locate potential problems through Infrared Thermography and Structural Drug Detection

Dewpoint Software Page

Download a free Psychrometric Chart in a Word document..Linric Corp-Home of PsyCalc® and many related programs to use for humidity calculations and conversions, plus WebPsycH a free on-line calculator.

Next month is almost here and we are busy upgrading our web sites and seeking new information from the Web. There seems to be an endless supply! Our eNewsletter web site has added a discussion forums capability and a set of initial topics covering contact and non-contact sensors, calibration and vendor items have been added. You can add your own if you register. Come on over and have a look at http://www.TemperatureSensorNews.com

COMMENTS and Alexa™ SITE RANKINGS

Notice to PR and Ad staffs in equipment and service companies:

Now you can list your organization and your new product or services or meetings information at the Temperature Sensor Community web site, www.tempsensor.net. It is a self-service feature that anyone who joins as a member can access. Membership is free!

Listed below are the Alexa Web site rankings at the end of May and the preceeding two months. The rose color indicates that a site became less popular during the month, the green or aqua indicates more popular. The numbers provide a quantitative measure of the site popularity according to the Alexa ranking system. Needless to say, lower values mean more popular (like:"Yahoo is Number 1!").

Rose zoomed past green in May. The upward trend has "gone south". Land Instruments (+28%) and Hart Scientific (+12%)were the only bright spot on the right side of the table with increases in popularity. Land's peer group, for instance, lost an average of 41%. Our site continued just below Sensors Magazine; we lost about 16% in May while they lost about 8%.

According to www.netcraft.com's latest survey, they received responses from 40,444,778 web sites accessible on the Internet. In context of a popularity rating, a position of 1 or 2 million doesn't seem so bad. However the rankings of sites of similar organizations competing for Web visitors and exposure does seem to indicate at least relative success in attracting visitors.

Note, too, that the links indicated by the underline and color of the indivdual web site entries in the table below take you to the corresponding Alexa report page for each site.

We have also joined with Alexa as an Amazon Associate web site (Amazon owns Alexa) to offer an Alexa Toolbar for your IE web browser, if you wish to use Alexa on a regular basis yourself. See the small banner ad at the bottom of the page to access it. It is one small way that you can help support About Temperature Sensors.

From the above Alexa ratings you can see that our Web site consistently achieves a lower ranking (meaning it is more popular) than many vendors of temperature sensors, with the major exceptions of GlobalSpec and Omega Engineering, two gigantic web sites. If you check most of the search engines for" temperature sensors" or "temperature measurement" our site is usually number one, or close to it in non-advertiser rankings.

Our second site, http://www.tempsensor.net only available on the net since November 2002, has already reached an Alexa popularity ranking that places it between ASNT and Sensors Magazine. That means it has already passed all the major equipment and services vendors, just like our main site. We know how to get high web traffic and popularity rankings and good directory placements! If your organization wants help in improving its Web marketing and popularity contact us at web@temperatures.com and ask for a free estimate.

If you only need more exposure of your organization's name and special capabilities, consider a banner ad on one of our websites. Our page view rates are high yet our prices are reasonable.