Fresenius Z. Anal. Chem. 297, 18 - 19 (1979)
~ellills Z~t~hri[l [ur
9 by Springer-Verlag ]979
The Use of Reference Materials in the Finnish Industry* P. Kivalo Technical Inspectorate, L6nnrotinkatu 37, SF-00180 Helsinki 18, Finland
Verwendung von Referenzmaterialien in Finnland Zusammenfassung. Es wird tiber das Ergebnis einer
Umfrage zur Benutzung von Referenzmaterialien in der chemischen Industrie Finnlands berichtet. Es ergab sich, dab in Finnland praktisch keine solchen Substanzen hergestellt werden und die meisten der verwendeten Materialien nicht zertifiziert sind. Meist werden verschiedenartige chemische Substanzen verwendet, die in Bezug auf ihre physikalischen Eigenschaften einem Arzneibuchstandard entsprechen. Einige Firmen benutzen mehr als 100 verschiedene Referenzmaterialien.
c) the name of the certifying organization or some other p r o o f of reliability; a list of the reference materials needed; readiness to participate in intercomparison of reference materials and methods; willingness to lend reference materials in urgent situations. The inquiry was sent to about 100 firms and institutes in 1975 and to 300 in 1978. They were mainly chosen according to the membership in the Federation of Finnish Chemical Industry. Many of them only partly acted in the chemical field. In 1975 31 and in 1978 69 replies were received. The repliers belonged to the following groups :
Summary. A report is given on the results of a survey of
the use of reference materials in the chemical industry of Finland. It has been found that there is virtually no production of reference materials in Finland and that most of the materials used are not certified. Mostly, different materials are used which are pharmacopoeia standards with regard to their physical properties. Some companies were found to use more than 100 different reference materials. Key words: fJberblick fiber die Verwendung in Finnland; Referenzmaterialien
F o r the purpose of obtaining a general view of the use of and demand for reference materials in the Finnish chemical industry, the Chemical L a b o r a t o r y of the Technical Research Centre sent an inquiry to various companies and institutes in 1975 and again in 1978. The following information was asked in these inquiries: A list of the reference materials used including a) the type of the reference material, b) information of the property value concerned and its uncertainty limits, * Presented at EuroanalysisII1 conference, Dublin, August 20--25, 1978
0016-1152/79/0297/0018/$01.00
large companies smaller companies state or municipal institutions others
1975 17 6 5 3
1978 25 15 19 i0
31
69
The main sector of activity of the firms was 1975 1978 metal industry chemical industry (including pharmaceutical and oil) building materials wood processing multiactivity and others
4 8 2 3 6
6 17 2 9 6
23
40
The number of reference materials used by the repliers was none 1 - 10 11 - 30 31 -100 more than 100 "plenty, many"
1975 1978 7 11 5 22 7 13 4 7 2 5 6 1l 31
69
P. Kivalo : Use of Reference Materials in the Finnish Industry
The biggest users of reference materials spent between 150-4,000 $ a year on purchasing new materials and on reference materials activity. This adds up to an estimated 100,000 $ per year for the whole country. The replies showed dearly that the concept of reference material is vague. If the replier had listed a lot of certified reference materials, other materials possibly used as standards were omitted, otherwise even uncertified materials were mentioned. Therefore, the analysis and classification of the replies became very difficult. Most repliers make use of some reference materials and have a demand for new ones. Most of the existing reference materials are not certified ones, but their reliability seems to satisfy the repliers. To these materials belong, among others, standards for hardness, colour, molecular weight and particle size distribution, atomic absorption and impurity analyses. The interest in different reference material categories was mainly the following inorganic materials organic materials standards according to the pharmacopoeia materials for physical properties
1975
1978
15 7 3 18
30 22 9 31
The repliers using these reference materials expressed in about one third of the cases interest in new ones of the same category. Those acting in the field of inorganic chemistry and metallurgy were the ones who mostly used certified reference materials. As sources of supply were mentioned among others: National Bureau of Standards, Bureau of Analysed Samples (British' Chemical Standards), Bundesanstalt ffir Materialpfiifung (Germany) and Institutet f6r Metallforskning (Jernkontorets analysnormal, Sweden). The certified property was in most cases the chemical composition of metals, alloys, metal oxides, minerals and glasses. Wood processing industry uses reference materials mainly as standards for technical properties. Its central organization, the Finnish Pulp and Paper Research Institute, keeps it up to date and provides it with standard samples. Pharmaceutical industry mainly uses reference materials fulfilling the requirements of the pharmacopoeia. The supply of these materials seems to be well
19
organized. Because many measurements of physicochemical properties are made in pharmaceutical industry, there is a demand for this type of reference materials, as for instance for the determination of viscosity, refraction index, particle size distribution, polarimetry and temperature (melting point). The second inquiry, which was performed in 1978 also included the question concerning the production of certified reference materials in Finland. This survey was taken in the interest of ISO/REMCO, for the compilation of a list of producers of certified reference materials. It is disappointing that there seems to be no production of certified reference materials in Finland to day. In a way this is understandable since the production of these materials is very expensive and requires a well prepared and also fairly large organization. The information, which was asked of the companies, also included the question of the readiness to participate in intercomparison of reference materials and methods. Nearly half of the repliers expressed their interest in taking part in some sort of ring tests but of course expressed their concern regarding the high cost of this kind of activity. It was also asked, if the companies were willing to lend their reference materials in urgent stituation to others. The reply was that also nearly half of the companies were willing to be in service in urgent occasions. The Technical Research Centre of Finland and its Chemical Laboratory now has compiled a great deal of information of the uses of reference materials in Finland and new demands for them. In addition, a list of producers and suppliers of reference materials is also available to the Finnish Industry. Since this type of information seems to be useful to various users, it is planned to develop the activity to a reference material information centre. It is envisaged that this activity will be helpful in connection with the important work of ISO/REMCO. ISO has recently formed a group on metrology, which supposedly is going to deal with the practical aspects of measurements within the framework of ISO. It will probably include terminology and the various aspects about measurement methods. One can expect that the science of measurement or metrology, in which the reference materials form an important part, will get more and more attention within the international trade and cooperation in the scientific world. Received September 16, 1978