Bios Flow Measurement Blog

Precision Recalibration Now Available in Europe!

Bios International is pleased to announce a new service center in the Netherlands that will streamline the processes of repairing and obtaining high-precision recalibration for clients in Europe.

Bios International’s gas flow calibrators -- featuring our proven DryCal technology -- guarantee an accuracy of 0.25%, or even 0.15% on some models. This precision is traceable to NIST and accredited by the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP).

To maintain calibration equipment functioning within this precise range, annual recalibration is recommended. Previously, clients sent their equipment for calibration to the Bios International lab in Butler, NJ, one of the world’s most accurate ISO 17025-laboratories, accredited to within 0.071% uncertainty.

Now, TPF Control in Wijchen, Netherlands can also service Bios International’s DC-1& DC-2, DC-Lite, Definer 220, and the Bios Defender 510 and 520 products, making reliable recalibration easily available in Europe.

“Having this capability in the Netherlands will save our customers both time and expense, ‘ says Scott Calvert, COO at Bios International. “We’ve eliminated the need for trans-Atlantic shipping of their valuable equipment, which reduces cost and downtime in the labs.”

For the convenience of clients throughout Europe, TPF Control offers service in several languages, including English, Dutch and German.

Upcoming Shows and Events!

The Definer 1020 debuted to rave reviews at the Measurement Science Conference in Anaheim, CA in March!

You can see it for yourself at another of our upcoming events this year. Stop by the Bios booth at these shows, or call ahead (888-663-4977) to schedule a conversation with one of our team members!

National Air Quality Conference
April 6-9, 2008
Portland OR Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront Hotel
http://airnow.gov

American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Expo
June 2-4, 2008
Minneapolis Convention Center, Minneapolis, MN
www.aiha.org

NCLS International: Metrology’s Impact on Business
August 3-7, 2008
WDW Swan & Dolphin Hotel, Orlando, FL
www.ncsli.org/conference/2008/

Why Calibrate My Bios Equipment? It’s A Primary Standard...

Everybody knows you don’t have to calibrate a primary standard, right? Well, . . . in a perfect world that would be true.

BUT, a Bios product is a machine. In fact, it’s a highly intricate piece of scientific equipment, made up of moving parts. Moving parts wear down, malfunction, get dirty and are inadvertently damaged. DryCal piston provers are subjected to particulate matter, all different gases and many strange atmospheric conditions. They get wet, are not handled as if they are fragile, and are also (gasp) dropped! Therefore, it is wise to verify the calibration annually to be sure it’s still perfectly accurate.

Our clients demand absolute precision, so we provide recalibration for our equipment in our own laboratory that is literally the most accurate commercial lab in the world for the calibration of air and gas flow in our ranges.

The Bios facility is accredited by NVLAP of NIST to ISO 17025, ANSI Z-540 and NIST Handbook 150. We are the only authorized service center for our Proven Dry Cal Technology equipment. Another ISO 17025 lab may perform a calibration – like goes to like. But remember, recalibration is NOT recertification. Only Bios can do that.

When you send your equipment in to us, it undergoes a rigorous testing process. The maintenance of your Proven Dry Cal Technology product is actually a full refurbishment! Our service manual describes the process in detail, but you can rest assured that by the time we finish cleaning, rebuilding and updating your unit and then put it through dynamic flow comparisons before we release it, it’s as good as or better than it was when it was new. Then we issue you a certification, traceable directly to NIST, to provide you with a secure audit trail.

The stakes are high since you rely on your primary standard machinery to monitor the safety of your employees and the environment. Proper recalibration and recertification protects them – and you.

To learn more about recalibration of Bios DryCal technology equipment, visit our website at www.biosint.com.

Definer 1020 Introduces Flow Calibration For Up to 500 Liters Per Minute

BUTLER, NJ - Bios today introduced the Definer 1020, the latest and highest- capacity application of its Proven DryCal technology. The Definer 1020 is a gas flow calibrator with a range of from 5 to 500 liters per minute - up to 10 times the volume of any other piston-prover device on the market.

The innovative Definer 1020 provides flow professionals with an automated piston calibrator that is portable, easy to operate and precise, according to Harvey Padden, founder and president of Bios and developer of the unique DryCal technology.

"The Definer 1020 is a true primary flow standard," he explained. "It's has a precision of 0.25 percent per reading, traceable to standards from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and accredited by the NVLAP. Moreover, people in calibration labs or complex process controls can actually move the Definer 1020 easily, unlike the old, cumbersome bell provers they've relied on for more than a century. It's easy to operate, too."

The reliability and convenience of the Definer 1020 will allow calibration labs to expand into flow measurement, in response to the growing importance of accurate high-volume gas sampling in keeping complex process-control systems operating at peak efficiency. It will soon become a fundamental piece of equipment for any flow laboratory.

"I have an inventor's pride in what the Bios team of engineers has accomplished with the 1020," said Padden. "And the market has responded very well to our other applications of DryCal technology for industrial hygiene and safety, environmental protection and sophisticated laboratory and workplace needs. I believe we'll see the same response with our latest innovation."

The Definer 220 introduced by Bios last year is portable and primary, and proved highly popular with environmental professionals as a good check standard for the dynamic gas calibrators in ambient air monitors. In addition, the Definer 220 won the 2007 Product Innovation Award from Flow Control magazine.

Proven DryCal Technology is a liquid-free gas flow measurement system that doesn't rely on soap bubbles for measurement, oil or mercury to form a gas-tight seal, or non-primary thermal mass flow readings that must be backward calculated to obtain volumetric flow.

Bios also is ISO 17025 accredited by the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP), the third-party accrediting body of NIST.

Additional information regarding the Definer 1020 and other Bios products can be found at www.biosint.com.

ISO 17025 v. ISO 9000 – What’s the Difference?

Years ago, there was a television commercial featuring a shabby looking mechanic in a run down garage who said, “Cool, I’ve always wanted to work on a transmission.” The message was clear. Why trust your car and family safety to someone who is not an expert? Go to someone you know can do the job – a transmission specialist.

The same rule of thumb applies to verifying the accuracy of your instrumentation – why go to someone who has not taken the time and effort to perfect their calibrations, someone whose own claims are open to question? Questions about the accuracy of your equipment can often lead to many thousands of dollars (or more) in litigation fees when there is no proof that the accuracy and dependability of your conclusions are based on set standards and procedures. This is where ISO 17025 comes into play.

There are ISO accreditations for different fields; these are quality standards set by the International Standards Organization. ISO 9000 is the accreditation standard for manufacturing facilities. ISO 17025 is the one that specifically applies to accuracy of calibration. To receive this accreditation, laboratories must meet rigorous requirements in areas of operation, including but not limited to, certification by a third party, professional training, customer and technical support and estimated uncertainty, which is the mathematical description of errors associated with any given measurement. This trail backs up the laboratory’s accuracy claims, which are also verified by comparison of the lab applying for the accreditation with other national and international laboratories. You can rely upon the fact that using instrumentation from an ISO 17025 accredited laboratory will guarantee that your equipment is calibrated to the highest standard.

Bios International is one of the few manufacturers with its own ISO 17025 laboratory, and our precision levels of 0.25 percent are traceable to standards from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and accredited by the NVLAP. As they say, “It doesn’t get any better than this”.

Bios International’s ISO 17025 accreditation by NVLAP of NIST, along with our technical papers and interlab comparisons, is available on our website at www.biosint.com.

Definer 220 successfully calibrates Met One Super SASS (TM) Speciation Sampler

Last week Bios engineers performed successful field calibrations using the new Definer 220 primary calibrator with the latest Met One Super SASS speciation sampler.  Three US EPA staff members an two state EPA staff members were present for the testing which validated the use of the Definer 220 as an acceptable flow standard for the calibration of these modern, highly capable compliance monitoring speciation samplers.

Bios Gets a Nod - and the Cover - for Flow Control Magazine's 2007 Innovation Awards

Lauren Padden
Director, Customer Relations

It's the 10th anniversary of Flow Control Magazine's Product Innovation Awards - and Bios can't think of a better way to help a leading industry publication celebrate a milestone than being featured on the front cover!

We're honored to be a finalist for this year's Product Innovation Awards, which recognizes products for advances in fluid flow measurement and control technologies. Our Definer™ 220 primary flow meter was nominated for its sleek, ergonomic hand-held design and portable, rugged construction - traits unique to primary gas flow measurement standards. Based on our Proven DryCal® Technology - the same technology used in all Bios primary standards since 1991 - the Definer 220 takes our patented flow measurement up a few notches with its modern form and enhanced functionality.

The awards process began early this year with an open call for nominees. Since then, product submissions have been pared down to several finalists - and now it's vote time! The voting deadline is August 3rd, 2007, so if you like your Bios product, simply visit Flow Control Magazine's website to submit your vote.

Flow Measurement Seminar to be Held at Bios

Lauren Padden
Director, Customer Relations

At last, a professional flow measurement seminar for flow measurement professionals!

Bios proudly announces our first-ever seminar in flow measurement science, led by Dr. George Mattingly, former leader of the NIST flow measurement group and the world's premier gas flow metrologist. Backed by inventor and president Harvey Padden and his team of Bios flow experts, this three-day event will be held in our ISO 17025-accredited laboratory in Butler, N.J., from June 13-15, 2007.

"For years our customers have asked us for top-level insights into the science of flow measurement and the latest, best thinking in flow technology," said Brad Padden, Managing Director of Bios. "With Dr. Mattingly's expertise and our experience, this promises to be a great opportunity to provide the kind of learning people can use every day."

The seminar will cover a wide range of carefully chosen topics, including (but not limited to) gas properties and flow equations, primary and secondary standards, calibration procedures, uncertainty practices and traceability, and how these relate to performing calibrations using Bios calibration products. There will also be open discussions of individual applications and other subjects of interest.

"Our intent is to provide the kind of practical help people can use to their jobs better," Padden added. "Virtually every industry is becoming increasingly dependent on accurate flow control. Best metrological practice is the key to optimum calibration results – and the bottom line."

While this initial seminar is by invitation only, Bios will post seminar-related elements to our website to educate all Bios customers as to how to obtain better application results and interpretations. Future seminar schedules will be posted on the site at a later date.  If you are interested in future Bios flow seminar events, please email sales@biosint.com.

500 slm DryCal® Technology Piston Prover Tested at NIST

Harvey Padden

President

At Bios, we’re constantly working to make high quality primary gas flow measurements faster, simpler and more precise. We’ve been pretty successful, as evidenced by our 0.15% Met Lab Series of high-speed piston provers. Now, we are developing a 0.15% DryCal Technology based prover for flows up to 500 slm.

As a cooperative research experiment, we took a prototype to NIST in order to test its linearity against their sonic nozzle flow standards. Taking a large number of readings at six flows from 10 slm to 500 slm, we established that our linearity agrees with NIST to about ± 0.05%. We did a second run and found that we could reproduce our results to better than ± 0.05% as well.

Since linearity was the largest variable in our overall accuracy, we’re now confident in our plans to extend the Met Lab Series to 500 slm. Please let us know if you want us to keep you informed of our progress and send you our technical papers when they are presented.

NEW Indestructible EPA flow transfer standard

Bradley Padden

Managing Director

Bios introduces drop-in replacement for performing ambient monitor flow calibrations using an orifice type flow transfer standard.

The Bios Definer™ 110 allows you to utilize the built in firmware for performing field flow audits for many Thermo® samplers and monitors including the Partisol® 2000, 2000-FRM, 2000-Audit, 2025, Dichotomous-2025 Samplers, and TEOM® Series 1400a, Series 8400N and 8400S monitors.

The Definer 110 (pictured above) is the latest application-specific product from Bios, delivering the ambient monitoring community an alternative to the fragile, glass-style orifice calibrators commonly used in performing audits of PM2.5, PM10 and TEOM air samplers.

                                            

Available in two flow ranges, the new Definer 110 features an unbreakable precision orifice manufactured with a zero coefficient expansion alloy – which means it can be used at any temperature and in any environment without affecting its accuracy. The Definer 110 is housed in an extremely durable, high-impact plastic body, complete with an integrated wind screen to reduce wind and eddy effects and enable it to be confidently used even in the most adverse field conditions. It’s also small and lightweight, so it’s easy to grab and go making it at home in field, where rough handling is the norm.  And, because it features Viton® seals throughout, your Definer 110 won’t degrade over time and exposure to common airborne pollutants.

Best of all, the Definer 110 is designed to be calibrated by the Bios Met Lab Series of high-precision primary standards. Each orifice is individually-calibrated at seven set points across its broad range, for the highest accuracy m and b constants.

As with all Bios products, Definer 110 calibrations are performed in our NVLAP-accredited ISO 17025, ANSI Z-540, NIST Handbook 150 gas flow calibration laboratory. No other EPA or environmental protection gas flow calibration laboratory can match our Scope of Accreditation.  Bios is also happy to perform calibrations and refurbishment services on other manufacturer's flow transfer standards so please ask us about our calibration offerings.  The new Definer 110 is a perfect choice when adding new orifice based flow transfer standards to your organization's ambient monitoring equipment inventory.