Regional Key Comparison Euramet.T-K9 (ITS-90 SPRT Calibration from the Ar TP to the Zn FP) - Report on measurements at INRIM

Since the final results of CCT-K9 from NIST have kept the world waiting, one year after the other, it was decided in Euramet (2014) to preemptively organize the Regional Comparison K9 in order to be ready when finally the CCT-K9 results become available, and thus to be able to latch on very quickly, so a lot of time will be saved for all participants of the Regional Comparison(s), who will be eager to submit their new CMCs as soon as possible. The protocol for the Regional Comparison, dubbed Euramet.T-K9, was finalized in Spring 2015. It was decided to group European Labs in five Stars. Each of these Stars has its own Pilot who already participated in CCT-K9 and thus serves as a direct link to CCT-K9, without the need to define a European Reference Value. Overall coordination is performed by LNE (France) in the person of Yves Hermier, assisted in the final elaboration of the data by the Pilots. The Stars, in their final definition, are: Pilot Participant Participant Participant Participant Participant Participant Star 1 LNE (F) SMD (B) CEM (E) IPQ (PT) JV (N) Star 2 PTB (D) MIKES (FI) CMI (CZ) UME (TR) SMU (SK) NSAI-NML (IRL) Star 3 INRIM (I) ROTH-AG (CH) MCC AA (MT) HMI (HR) MIRS/UL-FE/LMK (SL) IMBiH (BA) DMDM (RS) Star 4 VSL (NL) SP (S) DTI (DK) GUM (PL) VMT/FTMC (LT) BoM (MK) Star 5 NPL (UK) MKEH (HU) EIM (GR) BIM (BG) DPM (AL) BEV (AT) INM (RO) Since the circulation of the final comparison protocol, only few changes have taken place. One of these was that Malta was not able to participate anymore, for internal reasons. Others were the inability of some labs to comply in time with the deadline for SPRT delivery (Star 3). In this latter case, it was agreed among the participants that a second comparison run would be performed by the Pilot, in order to offer these labs the chance to participate after all.