Abstract. The dissemination of traceability to the International Temperature Scale of 1990 (ITS-90) through comparison calibration of thermocouples, is playing an important role in metrology institutes, secondary laboratories and industrial measurements. The previous studies of the Pt/Pd thermocouples at NIS-Egypt, shows promise of achieving significant improvements uncertainty of temperature measurements up to 960 • C. In this paper we describe the uncertainty assessment on the measurements of the calibration of Pt/Pd thermocouples at fixed point cells up to the freezing point of copper and by the comparison technique following a defined heat treatment at 1100 • C. All the measurements on Pt/Pd thermocouples were carried out using NIS facilities.

Thermocouples are increasingly used in industry and research. For many industrial heating processes, particularly those carried out at high temperatures, a thermocouple is the most convenient and simple instrument for temperature measurement. In some instances, it is the only feasible method. The aim of this study is to select and recommend the best thermocouples from both base and noble metals to users in industrial and scientific institutions. Different types of thermocouples and calibration methods are described. From this work, the Nicrosil-Nisil thermocouple has been proposed as the best base metal thermocouple and the Au/Pt thermocouple is the most recommended as a substandard up to 1,000 • C.

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Eutectic fixed points are close to becoming a reference for high temperatures calibration, especially as the new International Temperature Scale (ITS) approach to issue after the re-definition of the Kelvin unit. In this work the long-term stability of Co-C and Pd-C eutectic fixed points were investigated using NIS-Egypt facilities. The eutectic points were measured using Pt/Pd thermocouple. The total exposure to the Co-C and Pd-C melting temperature was about 200 h for the fixed-point cell and 150 h for the Pt/Pd thermocouple. The emfs of the thermocouple at the melting point were observed to drift by about 0.25 °C. Realization uncertainties were estimated to be ~ 0.446 ◦C for Co-C and ~0.742 for Pd-C (k = 2). Results show that Co-C and Pd-C eutectic cells can exhibit long term stability.