Calibration for Industry 4.0 Metrology: Touchless Calibration

Industry 4.0 denotes the fourth industrial revolution introduced in 2011 at the Hanover Fair, which already started to change the manufacturing industry. In the paper an original concept of the calibration process of Industry 4.0 measurement equipment by a touchless calibration system (TCal) is presented. The described approach can be realised by providing synchronized communication in real time between the calibration laboratories and clients' laboratories for calibrating instruments which are remotely located from the reference standard used in the calibration process. The objective is to gather information parameters from the calibration reference standard and send them by digital network to the unit under test (UUT-the calibrated item). The overall calibration procedure has to be totally synchronized (data, sensors and environment), so the calibration process would keep the requested accuracy as done in "a single room", i.e. in the calibration laboratory or on-site in the clients' premises. Application examples are presented as well as an analysis of the contributing factors to the uncertainty budget in the Industry 4.0 calibration measurement systems is conducted.