Establishment of traceability in the measurement of the mechanical properties of materials

Many important mechanical properties of materials including tensile strength are procedure dependent. This means that test results are traceable to standard test procedures rather than SI base units. However, most of the test procedures described in the current international standards such as ISO and ASTM are not suitable to be adopted as a primary standard procedure since they were developed to be used at industrial sites as well as testing laboratories. The Working Group on Hardness under CCM is working to develop a primary standard procedure to establish traceability for hardness measurement through key comparison among NMIs. These kinds of activities are necessary for other properties such as tensile strength, impact strength, creep and fatigue for the establishment of a traceability system. KRISS has been trying to establish a traceability chain in the measurement of materials' mechanical properties through international round-robin tests, the development of certified reference materials and uncertainty evaluation. In this paper, the activities of KRISS for establishing traceability and those of related ISO technical committees are described.