User:Gloss jim/sandbox

1. About AMECaL
AMECaL is a precision calibration laboratory providing a wide service of calibration  and repair for a large array of testing and measuring equipment employed in industry. The company also offer specialist advice and provide a comprehensive range of test equipment. Calibration of instrumentation, which ensures measuring equipment is accurate, often involves extremely precise and complex measurements and occasionally unique equipment. While straightforward calibrations can sometimes be carried out with basic facilities, the very best calibration companies have state-of-the-art laboratories which can cater for a range of equipment, disciplines and levels of precision. AMECaL has a multi-laboratory facility in Newcastle, which affords it the space to fully utilise all of the specialised equipment required for precision calibration.

2. History
AMECaL started trading in 1998, from the Technical Director passion for accurate and precise measurement / metrology.

3. Specialisms
Aerospace Metrology & Electromechanical Calibration Ltd (AMECaL) is building a reputation, and gaining a unique position in the UK, by being awarded the only UKAS  accreditation for gloss  measurements (and meeting ISO/lEC 17025:2005 ) for Gloss Measurement. Based in Newcastle upon Tyne, AMECaL has spent four years researching and developing a method of calibration relating to optical gloss measurement. The emergence of an accredited laboratory able to calibrate both the instruments and reference standards will ensure that many more of these instruments can, and will, be calibrated against measurement standards traceable to international/national measurement standards. The company also manufactures the Reference Standards themselves. Technical Dire

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ctor, Steve Oxborough, who set up the company after a lifelong interest in calibration, has a passion for the area: “Many companies think - or have been told - that accredited calibration for gloss measurement instrumentation simply doesn’t exist. That’s left them unable to meet traceability and competent measurement requirements.” “Companies can now get the same standards applied throughout the production process, from preparing metalwork, to painting it and measuring the paint thickness and gloss aspect - ensuring ongoing peak performance and compliance to both standardized quality management systems and international standards for all the equipment used.”

4. GLOSS Measurement
Gloss is often difficult to describe, let alone measure, and everyone has their own idea of what ‘gloss’ is. It’s an important factor in quantifying the appearance of a product in many industries from plastics to cosmetics - in fact, anywhere the perception of a product is dependent on its reflective properties. Gloss is an optical property related to the reflection of highlights - the ability of a surface to reflect light in a particular direction. Measuring it has to take into account a number of elements: the refractive index  of the material, the angle of incident light and the surface topography. Essentially, it involves comparing the amount of reflected light from a sample, to that reflected from a black glass calibration standard with a defined refractive index. Several different angles are used for measurement, with incident angles of 20, 60, and 85 degrees the most common (for high, medium and low gloss surfaces respectively), but other angles are used for specific applications, such as 75 degrees for plastic film, and 45 degrees for vinyl siding. The increasing importance of being able to quantify gloss, when in the past it has been simply subjective, has led to a large number of different instruments[15] being produced to measure gloss, but these are often sold, and calibrated, without traceability. That’s a problem for companies with (sometimes very specific) obligations under standardized quality management systems such as ISO 9001:2008, or the more prescriptive and industry-related SAE AS9100 / AECMA prEN 9100, in the aerospace sector, or ISO/TS 16949:2009, in the automotive sector, for example. Accredited calibration of instruments is becoming crucial as new requirements specify that traceability and competent measurements are demonstrated by accreditation to ISO/lEC 17025:2005.

5. External Links
UKAS Gloss Accreditation Search

AMECaL UKAS Accreditation Schedule