Abstract
The national accelerometry references in France are provided by the LNE. Such traceability to national standards is essential for industrial organisations using processes in which an understanding of acceleration related parameters is of primary importance in terms of quality and safety. These fields include the armaments, nuclear, aerospace and automotive industries. The calibration of reference accelerometers for industries and other laboratories has been carried out on the LNE site at Trappes since 2006, using an absolute method involving a Michelson laser interferometer in accordance with standard ISO 16063. The bench used, which is described in “Transfert of the french accelerometry reference from CEA/Cesta to LNE” (RFM n° 10, 2007) is however of an old design and an upgrading program has been drawn up and carried out. This article describes the upgrade of this bench and the improvements. The characteristics of the components of the bench are described. These are the laser interferometer, the shaker and the acquisition and analysis system. In order to cover requirements for traceability chains for vibration frequencies below 10 Hz, a specific shaker for low frequencies has been sourced. Metrological approval was based on the consistency achieved between the calibration results for given accelerometers obtained using the new bench and those obtained using the original bench and on the interlaboratory comparisons.