Do not ship specimens to the mailing address listed below. Contact the technical staff for the shipping address.

Mailing Address:
National Institute of Standards and Technology
100 Bureau Dr., Stop 8632
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8632
Fax: 301/975-5433

NOTE: Due to the time and effort required preparing guarded-hot-plate instrumentation for calibration it is particularly important that thermal insulation specimens provided by the customer be shipped in sturdy containers.  Insulation specimens will be inspected upon receipt and the customer notified of any obvious damage. If the schedule permits, we will cooperate with the customer's efforts to replace damaged specimens so that the calibration can proceed.

Calibration Transfer Specimen (36110C - 36150C)

Thermal resistance measurements are provided by the NIST 1016 mm Guarded-Hot-Plate Laboratory in air at site pressure (100 kPa ± 20 kPa).  Services at ambient pressures outside these limits or with other gases are not provided.  A dry-air purge is available to reduce the relative humidity to less than 15 %.  Additional information on the apparatus is available in the reference, below.  Specimens (610 mm by 610 mm) of low-density (9.6 kg/m³) fibrous-glass blanket are selected from an inventory of specimens maintained by NIST.  Specimen thicknesses are available at 25 mm, 75 mm, and/or 150 mm (two 75 mm specimens stacked) and/or 225 mm (three 75 mm specimens stacked).  Test conditions are selected using Order Form 1. When more than one test is requested, use Service ID Number 36150C and please contact the Technical Contact for costs. These measurements are performed once a year beginning in October.  Please call for scheduling.

ORDER FORM 1

Calibration Transfer Specimen (36199S)

Thermal resistance measurements are provided by the NIST 1016 mm Guarded-Hot-Plate Laboratory in air at site pressure (100 kPa ± 20 kPa).  Services at ambient pressures outside these limits or with other gases are not provided. A dry-air purge is available to reduce the relative humidity to less than 15 %. Specimens provided by the customer must be 1016 mm in diameter. The type of material must be approved by the technical contact. Test conditions are selected using Order Form 2. These measurements are performed once a year beginning in October. Customer specimens must be received no later than October 1.  Please call for scheduling and costs.

ORDER FORM 2

References - Thermal Resistance Measurements

"Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR Part 460: Trade Regulations: Labeling and Advertising of Home Insulation”, Federal Register, 50218-50245 (August 27, 1979; last updated in 2005).

"Low-Density Thermal Insulation Calibrated Transfer Samples - A Description and a Discussion of the Material Variability", B. G. Rennex, NBSIR 82-2538 (June 1982).

"Development of Calibrated Transfer Specimens of Thick, Low-Density Insulation", B. G. Rennex, R. R. Jones and D. G. Ober, Thermal Conductivity (17), 419-426 (1983).

"The NBS Line-Heat-Source Guarded Hot Plate for Thick Materials", F. J. Powell and B. G. Rennex, Proceedings ASHRAE/DOE Conference - II, Atlanta, ASHRAE SP 38, 657-672 (1983).

"Assessment of uncertainties for the NIST 1016 mm Guarded-Hot-Plate Apparatus: Extended Analysis for Low-Density Fibrous-Glass Thermal Insulation", R. R. Zarr, NIST Technical Note 1606 (Dec. 2008)