RICERCA ITALIANA     

Methodology for the actuation of the European Norm on Measuring Instrument Devices (MID)

Università degli Studi di Padova

Abstract

The research aims to give a complete scientific support for a rapid and effective application of the Measuring Instrument Directive (MID) within national contest. The Directive renews completely the legal metrology sector, proposing a "new approach" aiming to technical normalization and harmonization and toward a "global approach" to evaluation and conformity. Legal metrology constitutes an essential tool for markets' operations and involves a wide range of instruments and is therefore of primary socioeconomic interest. The Directive operates on the basis of these two principles:
- formulation of essential requirements (having cogent power) and of requirements for conformity evaluation;
- mutual agreement among the member States of results of conformity evaluation.

The Directive essentially proposes two types of challenges, one relative to competitiveness of the involved companies and another relative to the efficacy of its actuation among the member States, so that acting promptly at a national level seems to be essential. Because of the fact that the key point for the implementation of the Directive is the availability of procedures for functional and metrological characterization of instruments, in the present research it is suggested an activity of experimentation and development of standard procedures optimized, relatively to the available information, in terms of simplicity, execution reliability and costs, and of the relative metrological >>>

Principal Investigator

Francesco ANGRILLI Università degli Studi di PADOVA

Research Objectives

The Measuring Instrument Directive (MID) represents a milestone in the building process of the european common market. In fact it completely reforms, the legal metrology sector, under the spirit of the "new approach" towards the technical normalization and harmonization.
The legal metrology, as known, aims to guarantee the tutelage of parts, for example in commercial transactions, and constitutes an essential tool to warrant markets' operations. The field of instruments covered by metrology is extremely wide and of primary socioeconomic interest. It comprehends for example meters of public interest services, scales of retailers, filling machines for packed products, taximeters, instruments for analysis of exhaust gas and instruments for linear measurement (length measurement).
The "new approach" toward technical normalization and harmonization has been thought to ease the realization of the internal market and to facilitate a flexible and technologically neutral legislation, to promote innovation and competitiveness (see Council act of May 7th 1985). It belongs to a general approach for evaluation of conformity, that is based substantially on modern criteria of quality assurance (see Council act of October 28th 1999).
The MID operates accordingly with the new approach and aims to constitute an internal market of the measurement instruments subjected to legal metrological control, on the basis of two principles:
- formulation of essential >>>

First Results

Expected results:
- Technical note on the scientific-technical literature and definition of state of art
- Technical note on test design for the mathematical model validation
- Technical note on usable model
- Technical note on the design of the numerical code
- Draft of the preliminary procedures for the measurement uncertainty evaluationExpected results:
- Technical report on the study and development of the mathematical models
- Technical report on procedures for the uncertainty estimation
- Technical report on the extension of the proposed model
- Characterisation procedures for the two classes of instruments selected.
- Procedure for uncertainty evaluation.
- Preliminary version of the computing codes with proper documentation.
- Technical report about comparison procedure of test results;
- Technical report about effect on different instrumentation configurations with reference to the environmental effects;
- Technical report about results of the tests carried out.Expected results:
- Technical report on experimental procedures
- Technical report on identification procedures
- Definitive version of the supporting codes for uncertainty.
- Technical report on the validation of the codes.
- Preliminary version of codes for risk evaluation and costs analysis.
- Technical report on the application of the procedure to the >>>

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

Legislation in measurement and in measuring instruments is one of the earliest in existence, because the quality of measurement results conditions for various aspects daily life of citizens in a direct or indirect manner. In all Countries with advanced development have been created therefore Metrology Institutes in charge of guaranteeing the respondance of measurement results to the international metrological regulations managed by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures.
When, for public interest reasons, a minimal degree of accuracy of measurement is required, the measuring instrument is subjected to legislative requirements that guarantee the minimal degree of performance required, in the working conditions usually predictable.
Whithin the European Community the member States have put in force such legislation much before (1957) the creation of the Community itself. A process of harmonization of these legislations has been therefore necessary, and it has been started in 1971.
The actual legislation on measuring instruments, that comprehends the norm reference (71/316/CEE) and a series of directives of the sector has shown to be lacking from different points of view. For example the specific directives usually contain technical requirements too restrictive, and inadequate to the rapid evolution of measuring techniques. To overcome these inconveniences (see the document COM(2000) 566) the Measuring Instrument Directive (MID) has been prepared, and >>>