Current Work on Furnaces and Data Analysis to Improve the Uniformity and Noise Levels for Metal Fixed Points.

Abstract  Ongoing work to improve the uniformity of vertically mounted furnaces, manufactured by Carbolite (e.g., Type TZF12/75—three-zone furnace capable of 1200 °C, with 75 mm inner bore) along the axis and across the working tube and/or equalizing block is reported. This involves adjusting the size of the end zones, the position of the control thermometers, and the use of cascade-control methods. Means regularly used at NPL to reduce electrical noise in some commercially available ac furnaces through a reduction in the voltage used to “fire” the heaters, and better use of thyristor controllers (by extending their cycle time) are described. The need to shield the controllers from local magnetic fields is described. With these measures, the electrical noise from ac furnaces can approach that of dc furnaces, without the large cost of a dc power supply. The application of new data analysis techniques (Allan deviation) will be shown to improve the representation of uninterrupted fixed-point traces (as used in ingot verification rather than PRT calibration). Reduction of statistical noise on the temperature measurements has been achieved for data on the freezing plateau by determining the statistically optimum averaging time. This shows that the statistical uncertainty in the determination of the temperature of a particular freezing plateau is less than 25 μK and that noise (drift) from other sources, possibly due to variations in room temperature, starts to become appreciable over periods longer than a few tens of minutes. The measurement of freezing and melting plateaux at this level is aided by the introduction of new ASL-F900 bridge(s), and quieter/larger standard resistor baths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]