The D.I. Mendeleev All-Russian Institute for Metrology (VNIIM) news

On January 25, the TV Channel Five broadcast the news about Russia going to make her own Kibble balance to provide a remedy for the exhausting “standard kilogram”. Having mentioned, as an example, the equipment located at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the channel described the principles of such measuring instrumentation, and referred to the experience in designing balances in Russia. Despite a clarification from VNIIM, the channel has wrongly inferred that Russian watt balances are made in the Urals.

To correct the slipup of the TV commentator, the press service of VNIIM invites the interested audience to the laboratory where, without any exaggeration, an unprecedented research work on the design of the domestic watt-balance is underway. Dr. Alexander Jankovsky, Head of the research department of measurement standards in the field of motion quantities, torque force and gravimetry, presents the history of the issue and the current stage of the work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIlstmwx3g4

The 115th anniversary of Dmitry Mendeleev´s decease was commemorated in St. Petersburg on February 2, 2022. Representatives of the City Committee on Science and Higher School, universities, scientific and public organizations laid flowers and honored the memory of the great Russian scientist-encyclopedist, teacher, public and state celebrity, at his grave at the "Literators´ footbridge" of the Volkov cemetery.

The audience was addressed by Vladimir Okrepilov (RAS Academician, President of the Metrological Academy), Irina Ganus (First Deputy Chair of the Committee on Science and Higher School), Irina Balova (Director of St. Petersburg State University Institute of Chemistry), Vladimir Ostrovsky (Professor of St. Petersburg State University), and Elena Ginak (Head of the Metrology Museum at VNIIM).

VNIIM presented an overview of congress and exhibition events planned for 2022. Along with the traditional ones, such as International Arctic Forum "Arctic - Territory of Dialogue", Moscow International Book Fair, National Oil and Gas Forum "Neftegas", Saint Petersburg International Gas Forum, Saint Petersburg International Scientific and Educational Salon, International Forum "Russian Industrialist", International Exhibition and Forum "MetrolExpo", Tatarstan Oil and Gas Chemical Forum, International Exhibition Testing&Control, our Metrology Institute intends to demonstrate its achievements at new venues. Among them - the conference "Clusters open borders", aimed at development and promotion of interregional cooperation of Russian clusters, and the Infrastructure Congress "Russian PPP Week" - the largest event in Russia and CIS countries on the topic of infrastructure development and public-private partnership.

Representatives of VNIIM acted as independent experts in the first demo-exam on WorldSkills standards in the competence "Digital Metrology". The exam was held on the basis of GUAP (State University of Aviation Instrumentation.

The Deputy Director General of VNIIM, Konstantin Chekirda, Deputy Head of Liquid Density and Viscosity Measurements, Anastasia Neklyudova, and Head of Section for Thermophysical Quantities, Vladislav Mikheev checked, during the exam, the compliance with the WorldSkills requirements, especially those concerning the correctness of the measurement tasks and verification of theoretical knowledge.

All 50 examinees received the Skills passport as a confirmation of the students´ high qualifications. Among the companies that recognize this document are Rosatom State Corporation, the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), 1C, the German manufacturer of industrial robots and solutions for production automation KUKA, and the machine tool manufacturer DMG Mori.

The WorldSkills demo-examination is a form of the state final certification of graduates of secondary professional education programs of educational institutions of higher and secondary professional education. The purpose of the demonstration examination according to the WorldSkills Russia standards is to determine the level of knowledge, skills and practical abilities of the examinees in conditions of real measuring processes in accordance with the standards of the WorldSkills Russia.

109 types of national CRMs produced by VNIIM were given the rank of interstate RMs. The decision was taken at the 60th meeting of the Interstate Council for Standardization, Metrology and Certification (CSMC). For the first time, the CRMs created in the research laboratory of state standards in the field of liquid density and viscosity measurements received the interstate status. According to Dr. Anton Pronin, General Director of VNIIM, this decision demonstrates the authority of VNIIM as a manufacturer of certified reference materials in the market of CIS member states, and will increase the efficiency of metrological services at the interstate level.

The list of CRMs at VNIIM D.I. Mendeleyev can be found in the Register of CRMs