#Thermometer Calibration

[cciaustralia]

In today’s fast-paced world, temperature-sensitive industries such as healthcare, food production, and pharmaceuticals rely heavily on accurate temperature measurements. Whether it’s storing vaccines, maintaining food safety, or conducting precise laboratory experiments, small deviations in temperature readings can lead to significant consequences.

[customcalibrationinc]

Temperature Calibration Services | Custom Calibration

Are you looking for a Temperature Calibration Service in Connecticut? Look no further than Custom Calibration. Accurate temperature calibration is critical for industries where slight deviations can lead to significant consequences, such as in healthcare, where precise temperature control is essential for vaccine storage, laboratory experiments, and medical device manufacturing. Temperature calibration services offer comprehensive solutions to validate and maintain the accuracy of temperature-controlled environments and equipment.

[pepy1]

Understanding IR Pyrometers: A Comprehensive Guide:

Infrared (IR) pyrometers have revolutionized temperature measurement by providing a non-contact, highly accurate, and efficient method for measuring surface temperatures. These devices have found widespread applications in industries such as metallurgy, manufacturing, food processing, and research laboratories. This article explores the working principles, types, advantages, and applications of IR pyrometers.

Working Principle of IR Pyrometers

An infrared pyrometer operates on the principle of detecting infrared radiation emitted by an object to determine its temperature. Every object above absolute zero (-273.15°C) emits infrared radiation, and the intensity of this radiation increases with temperature. The pyrometer captures this radiation and converts it into an electrical signal, which is then processed to display the temperature.

IR pyrometers use optical systems and detectors to measure the infrared energy. The lens focuses the infrared energy onto a detector, which generates an electrical output proportional to the intensity of the radiation. The pyrometer then calculates the temperature using Planck’s law, which describes the relationship between radiation intensity and temperature.

Types of IR Pyrometers

IR pyrometers are classified based on their operational mechanisms and temperature measurement capabilities. The primary types include:

Single-Wavelength Pyrometers: These pyrometers measure infrared radiation at a specific wavelength and are best suited for measuring temperatures of objects with known emissivity.

Ratio (Two-Color) Pyrometers: These pyrometers measure radiation at two different wavelengths and calculate the temperature based on the ratio of intensities. They are particularly useful for applications where emissivity variations, dust, or smoke can affect accuracy.

Thermal Imaging Pyrometers: These devices generate thermal images by mapping temperature distributions across a surface, making them ideal for monitoring large areas or complex shapes.

Fiber Optic Pyrometers: These are designed for high-temperature applications in harsh environments where traditional pyrometers cannot withstand extreme conditions. They use fiber optics to transmit infrared radiation from the target to the detector.

Advantages of IR Pyrometers

Infrared pyrometers offer several advantages over traditional contact-based temperature measurement techniques, such as thermocouples and resistance temperature detectors (RTDs):

Non-Contact Measurement: IR pyrometers measure temperature without direct contact, preventing contamination and wear.

High-Speed Response: These devices provide real-time temperature readings, making them suitable for dynamic processes.

Wide Temperature Range: IR pyrometers can measure extremely high temperatures, often exceeding 3000°C.

Accuracy and Reliability: They provide consistent and precise readings, even in challenging environments.

Suitability for Moving Objects: Unlike contact sensors, IR pyrometers can measure the temperature of moving or rotating objects, making them ideal for industrial applications.

Applications of IR Pyrometers

IR pyrometers are used across various industries for temperature monitoring and control. Some key applications include:

Metallurgy and Foundries: IR pyrometers are used to measure the temperature of molten metals, furnaces, and heated materials in smelting and casting processes.

Glass and Ceramics Industry: These devices help monitor the temperature of glass and ceramic production, ensuring quality control and process efficiency.

Food Processing: IR pyrometers are used to measure surface temperatures of food products during baking, frying, and freezing processes.

Automobile Industry: They play a crucial role in monitoring engine components, exhaust systems, and welding applications.

Power Plants and Boilers: IR pyrometers ensure optimal performance and safety by monitoring boiler tubes, turbines, and insulation materials.

Electronics Manufacturing: Temperature-sensitive semiconductor production processes benefit from the non-contact measurement capabilities of IR pyrometers.

Factors Affecting IR Pyrometer Accuracy

To achieve accurate temperature readings, several factors must be considered when using an IR pyrometer:

Emissivity: The emissivity of an object affects the infrared radiation it emits. Adjusting the emissivity setting on the pyrometer ensures accurate readings.

Distance-to-Spot Ratio: This ratio determines the area measured by the pyrometer. A higher ratio allows measurement of smaller areas from a greater distance.

Environmental Interference: Dust, smoke, and humidity can affect infrared radiation, leading to inaccurate readings.

Target Surface Condition: Reflective or shiny surfaces can distort infrared measurements, necessitating the use of emissivity coatings or adjustments.

[calibrationsau]

Thermometer Calibration Melbourne

Nowadays, before anything, people tend to hire a professional for calibration services like thermometer calibration in Melbourne. But why calibration? Why is calibration so essential?

Calibration plays a crucial role in ensuring accurate and reliable measurements across various industries and fields. From healthcare to manufacturing, calibration is essential for maintaining quality standards, complying with regulations, and achieving precise and consistent results. In this response, we will explore the importance of calibration in detail, highlighting its significance and impact. But first, we need to understand what calibration is?

What is Calibration?

Calibration is a process to maintain instrument accuracy. It helps to provide the result of a sample instrument configured within an acceptable range. With the help of calibration, the user can easily eliminate or minimize the causing factors of inaccurate measurements of the instrumentation design.

Now let’s move to the main question, which is:

Why Is Calibration Important?

Here is why you need to follow the calibration process:

Accuracy and Precision

One of the primary reasons for calibration is to establish the accuracy and precision of measuring instruments. Over time, instruments, like thermometers can drift from their initial calibration and produce inaccurate results. By periodically calibrating thermometers, you can verify their accuracy and make adjustments if necessary. This ensures that measurements are reliable, providing confidence in the data collected.

Quality Assurance

Calibration is a fundamental aspect of quality assurance programs. It helps to maintain consistent product quality, prevent defects, and minimize variations in manufacturing processes. In industries like pharmaceuticals or food production, where temperature control is critical, the users of calibrated thermometers ensure that products meet safety and quality standards.

Regulatory Compliance

Many industries are subject to regulations and standards that require the calibration of measuring instruments. Compliance with these regulations is necessary to ensure product safety, protect consumers, and maintain industry credibility. In healthcare industries, temperature measurements are vital for patient monitoring and treatment. Calibrated thermometers are essential for accurate diagnoses and effective healthcare interventions, ensuring compliance with regulatory bodies.

Process Optimization

Calibration plays a vital role in process optimization and efficiency. In manufacturing, precise temperature control is often necessary to ensure the quality and integrity of products. By calibrating thermometers, deviations in temperature measurements can be identified, allowing the manufacturer to make adjustments to maintain optimal process conditions. This improves product consistency, reduces waste, and enhances overall productivity.

Cost Savings

Calibration can lead to cost savings in the long run. By regularly calibrating instruments, you can identify or address potential issues or inaccuracies. This helps prevent costly product recalls, rework, or equipment failures, resulting from using faulty measurements. Additionally, calibrated instruments tend to have a longer lifespan, reducing the need for premature replacements and associated expenses.

Traceability and Standardization

Calibration provides traceability and establishes a chain of measurement reliability. Calibrated instruments are compared against recognized standards, ensuring consistency and uniformity of measurements. This traceability is essential in fields such as research, where accurate and reproducible results are crucial for scientific advancement.

Customer Confidence

Calibration enhances customer confidence in products and services. When customers know that a company's instruments and measurements are regularly calibrated, they can trust the accuracy of the data provided. This is particularly relevant in sectors like environmental monitoring, where precise measurements are critical for decision-making and compliance with environmental regulations.

Safety

Calibration is crucial for ensuring safety in various industries. In industrial fields like aviation, automotive, or energy production, accurate temperature measurements are vital for maintaining safe operating conditions. For example, in power plants, calibrated thermometers are essential for monitoring cooling systems and preventing overheating that could lead to equipment failures or accidents.

Legal and Liability Considerations

Calibration can also have legal and liability implications. In some industries, using uncalibrated instruments or failing to comply with calibration requirements can lead to legal consequences and drawbacks. Organizations can mitigate the risk of legal disputes by ensuring proper calibration and demonstrating their commitment to accurate measurements and safety.

End Note

In conclusion, calibration is of paramount importance across multiple industries and fields. By ensuring accuracy, reliability, and consistency in measurements, your user will get improved quality products, compliance with regulations, and process optimization. Not only data integrity, calibration also contributes to safety, traceability, and legal compliance. If you are looking for thermometer calibration services in Melbourne, feel free to contact us and let us help you maintain your product's quality.

[piratesexmachine420]

Look all I'm saying is that, for anthropocentric purposes, "the temperature at which water boils" is probably the least useful temp to make an easy-to-remember round number. I already know what temperature water boils at, because I can look at the pot and see it boiling. I am not a 17th century thermometer-maker and neither are you. A scale that is easy to calibrate with pre-industrial tools is not any more relevant than a scale that is difficult to calibrate with those same tools. 100° should be something difficult to measure without a thermometer.

Anyway this is why I think Fahrenheit should be re-calibrated to make 100° human body temperature again. It makes the conversion to Celsius even worse, but nobody remembers that stupid formula off the top of the dome piece anyways.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Scientists create material that can take the temperature of nanoscale objects

University of California, Irvine scientists have discovered a one-dimensional nanoscale material whose color changes as temperature changes. The team's results appear in Advanced Materials. "We found that we can make really small and sensitive thermometers," said Maxx Arguilla, UC Irvine professor of chemistry whose research group led the study. "It's one of the most applied and translatable works to come out of our lab." Arguilla likened the thermometers to "nano-scale mood rings," referring to the jewelry that changes color depending on the wearer's body temperature. But instead of simply taking a qualitative temperature reading, the changes in the color of these materials "can be calibrated and used to optically take temperature readings at the nanoscale," Arguilla said.

Read more.

[thejoyofseax]

Du Fait De Cuisine, Flintheath

I'm just back from Du Fait De Cuisine in Flintheath, a small event focused entirely on food. There were 32 people there, I'm told, and there were a number of excellent classes. I'm already watching the ripples go out from conversations there into the wider community, which I feel is a fantastic thing.

(Photo by Lady Amy of Osgoldcross)

From my own notes: Master Thomas Flamanc says that spit-roasted meat is notably better if it's rotated constantly, rather than turned a quarter turn every few minutes, as is many people's practice. This does necessitate an extra body in the kitchen to turn it, someone who knows what they're doing in order to slow down and speed up on differing sides for even cooking. He noted that spit-turners were some of the highest-paid people in medieval kitchens.

Thomas also talked about the different firewoods in use; we settled on beech and birch as being the best for most purposes, with oak burning hot and for a long time, and with good coals. Órlaith Ildánach, hearing of this conversation later via the Cullacht Sealgairí Hubertach Discord server, put up some research on Irish sources concerning firewood.

Magnifica Marcella di Cavallino's Feast Planning 101 class brought up the idea of calibrating ovens with a thermometer, both on actual temperature, and time to reach it. Anecdotal information seems to indicate that oven thermostats are dodgy pieces of equipment at best. There was also discussion of allowing time for plating in the kitchen schedule, which is something I know I've missed out on in the past.

Marcella also talked about themes, and the importance of varying food such that no one ingredient occurs in all the dishes, even if it is the theme.

My own Early Irish Foodways class went well, and there were a number of interesting bits of discussion around it, including one with Master Duncan Kerr about the hāngi, a Maori method of pit-roasting which I think lines up well enough with the Irish fulacht fiadh to give this - or something like it - some credence as a cooking method. And indeed, there's some solid reasoning out there which indicates that what we're traditionally told are boiling pits are in fact roasting pits.

[daleeltrading]

How to Solve Overheating Issues in Electrical Panels

Electrical panels are the nerve centers of industrial, commercial, and residential power systems. Their reliability is crucial, yet one of the most common and dangerous issues that can arise is overheating. Left unaddressed, overheating in electrical panels can lead to equipment failure, costly downtime, fires, or even fatal accidents. Understanding the root causes and adopting preventive as well as corrective measures is essential to ensure electrical safety and operational efficiency.

Causes of Overheating in Electrical Panels

To solve the problem of overheating, we must first identify its sources. Some of the most common causes include:

1. Loose or Corroded Connections

Electrical current encounters resistance at loose or oxidized joints. This resistance generates heat, especially under load, leading to localized hotspots which may not be visible until failure occurs.

2. Overloaded Circuits

Each circuit is rated for a specific current. Drawing more current than the rated capacity results in excess heat generation within breakers, busbars, and wires.

3. Inadequate Ventilation

Poor airflow in and around the panel restricts natural or forced heat dissipation. In high ambient temperature environments, this can quickly push the panel beyond safe thermal limits.

4. Improper Component Sizing

Undersized breakers, conductors, or transformers struggle to handle load currents, leading to thermal stress and degradation over time.

5. Dust and Contamination

Dust accumulation acts as an insulating layer, trapping heat inside components. Combined with humidity or oil vapors, this can further degrade insulation and create tracking paths.

How to Identify Overheating Problems

1. Thermal Imaging

Using infrared thermography is one of the most effective ways to detect hotspots. It provides a non-contact, real-time temperature map of the panel and highlights abnormally heated components.

2. Manual Temperature Monitoring

For panels without thermal sensors, regularly measuring surface temperatures using contact thermometers can provide early warnings of rising heat levels.

3. Visual Inspection

Signs like discoloration, melted insulation, or the smell of burning plastic indicate overheating. Ensure regular visual checks are part of your maintenance routine.

Solutions to Overheating in Electrical Panels

1. Tighten and Maintain Electrical Connections

Schedule regular maintenance to tighten terminals and busbar connections. Apply proper torque settings using calibrated tools to avoid over- or under-tightening.

2. Balance and Distribute Loads

Ensure that the load across phases is balanced. Uneven distribution causes one phase to overwork, which leads to overheating and inefficiency.

3. Upgrade Panel Capacity

If the electrical demand exceeds the panel’s rated capacity, consider upgrading to a higher-rated panel or adding sub-panels to spread the load.

4. Enhance Cooling and Ventilation

· Install forced ventilation systems like exhaust fans or panel coolers.

· Use heat exchangers or air conditioners in environments with high ambient temperatures.

· Ensure adequate spacing between panels and walls for natural convection.

5. Use Appropriately Rated Components

All breakers, fuses, contactors, and wiring must match the system’s voltage and current ratings. Derate components appropriately if operating in high-temperature environments.

6. Install Thermal Sensors or Smart Monitoring

Modern panels can be equipped with thermal sensors that provide real-time data to a building management system (BMS) or SCADA. This allows predictive maintenance before issues escalate.

Preventive Measures and Best Practices

· Design with Expansion in Mind: Avoid loading a panel to its full capacity. Always leave a 20–30% margin for future growth and safety.

· Implement a Routine Maintenance Schedule: Quarterly or bi-annual inspections reduce the risk of unexpected failures.

· Train Maintenance Personnel: Staff should be equipped to detect early signs of thermal distress and follow lockout/tagout (LOTO) procedures.

· Keep Panels Clean and Sealed: Use gasketed enclosures in dusty environments and clean panels regularly to prevent dust build-up.

Conclusion

Overheating in electrical panels is a preventable issue that, if neglected, can have severe consequences. By adopting systematic inspection routines, upgrading infrastructure as needed, and leveraging modern monitoring technologies, businesses and facility managers can safeguard both equipment and personnel. The key is proactive action: identify, analyze, correct, and prevent — the four pillars of managing thermal risk in electrical systems.

[cciaustralia]

Why Does Regular Thermometer Calibration Ensure Accuracy?

Inaccurate temperature readings can have significant implications, from compromised product quality to critical safety issues. This is why regular thermometer calibration plays a pivotal role in ensuring the reliability and precision of temperature measurements across various industries.

[customcalibrationinc]

Temperature Calibration Services | Custom Calibration

Are you looking for a Temperature Calibration Service in Connecticut? Look no further than Custom Calibration. Accurate temperature calibration is critical for industries where slight deviations can lead to significant consequences, such as in healthcare, where precise temperature control is essential for vaccine storage, laboratory experiments, and medical device manufacturing. Temperature calibration services offer comprehensive solutions to validate and maintain the accuracy of temperature-controlled environments and equipment.

[cynicalone94]

Tossing And Turning

I teased Wes having his gallbladder out in Ch. 25. So without further ado, here’s the story.

Read on AO3 here or below the cut.

@whumpril

He hasn’t slept in three days.

Just crawls into bed to toss and turn for a while before giving up.

It’s not even nightmares or insomnia or any of the usual reasons that he can’t sleep.

He’s been sick all week. A low-grade fever paired with nausea and vomiting, alternating with diarrhea.

His dad is talking about an run to urgent care if it doesn’t improve soon but thankfully, he’s been able to keep down enough food and fluids to avoid it so far.

But honestly, none of that is really what’s bothering him.

His stomach hurts.

Tight, pulsing pain just below his ribs on the right side.

He’s done his best to ignore it.

Miss Edwin and his foster parents always told him not to be such a baby; that kids get stomachaches and its usually because they ate too much or ate something they shouldn’t have.

Eating too much is an unlikely answer for someone who all too often wasn’t given anything to eat at all.

Eating something bad was more possible.

It wasn’t uncommon for lazy foster parents to bring day old gas station food home for him when (if) they remembered there wasn’t food in the house.

He’d tried to explain that it wasn’t a stomachache.

That he knew what food poisoning felt like and he didn’t overeat.

That had usually led to him being accused of trying to act like he was starving to try to get his foster parents in trouble.

So he’d learned not to say anything.

It hasn’t happened for a while; something that he’d attributed to the fact that he doesn’t have to go without food or risk eating something questionable since he’s been with Mr. Mitchell.

But it’s started up again this week and it’s not going away.

At first, he’d associated it with whatever stomach bug he’d figured he’d picked up.

But this time, something is definitely wrong.

Tonight, the longer he’s laid here, staring at the ceiling and willing sleep to just take him, the more it’s started to hurt and the colder he’s started to feel.

Finally, he crawls out of bed, making his way as quietly as possible to the bathroom in search of the thermometer.

Sits on the toilet seat, shivering while he turns it on and waits for it to calibrate.

Runs it across his forehead.

103.1

Yeah, that’s probably not good.

It’s hard to straighten up and he almost considers crawling to his dad’s room but his ego wins out and he limps across the hall, hand pressed against his side, to knock on the door.

There’s no answer at first and he considers going back to bed, trying to sleep a little bit longer and waiting until the sun is up to bother his dad.

Another flash of pain spreads through him and he drops to his knees.

Knocks again.

“Dad?” He calls weakly, barely even able to hear himself.

His stomach twists but he can’t even begin to stagger to his feet, to try to get to the bathroom, so he just throws up all over himself right there in the hallway.

He wakes to the sound of someone throwing up.

Ruefully thinks for a moment that this stomach flu is kicking Wes’s ass and it’s definitely time to take him to urgent care first thing in the morning.

Then he realizes that the sound is a lot closer than the bathroom down the hall.

He doesn’t even bother with his robe as he stumbles out of bed and to the door.

Wes is doubled over in the hallway, his legs covered in vomit.

“Oh kiddo.” He says softly, kneeling in front of him and then recoiling as he feels the heat coming off of him.

“It hurts.” Wes whimpers, arms curled around his stomach in a way that sends alarm bells ringing through him.

But not as much as the tears in his eyes.

He hates it but Wes has the highest pain tolerance of anyone he’s ever met.

If the pain is enough to bring tears to his eyes, something is wrong.

“Hang on, bud.” He whispers, hurrying over to drag pants on over his boxers, shove his feet into sandals and his phone and wallet into pockets before returning and lifting his son into his arms.

He’s getting harder to carry but he’s still lighter than any seventeen year old has any right to be but he’s grateful for the moment because he’s not sure the kid is up for walking.

A brief stop by the door to grab his keys and he’s running out to his truck.

Wes has really got to stop doing this to him.

One thing about arriving at the Emergency Room with a teen who’s hot enough to boil an egg on his forehead and nearly unresponsive with pain is that there’s no waiting.

Wes is rushed directly into a bay and Sean is told they’ll find him when they have news.

And that’s when the waiting begins.

At least for him.

After nearly two hours where the only news he gets come in tandem with requests to approve imaging and tests, they tell him his son needs surgery.

His gallbladder is badly obstructed and has become dangerously inflamed as a result.

They need to remove it.

Yes, Wes can manage just fine without a gallbladder.

He signs the forms robotically and then collapses back into his chair.

Only realizes that he hasn’t called anyone when his sister comes downstairs.

She’d been shocked and horrified to see her nephew being wheeled into her CT but it had taken her a minute to get away.

She can’t stay long but does her best to reassure him and then calls Grant to come sit with him before heading back to work.

It’s not a long surgery.

Grant hasn’t been there more than thirty minutes before a surgeon is coming out, telling them both that Wes had done very well.

That his gallbladder has been removed and he’ll be treated with antibiotics to clear the remainder of the infection.

Then he asks if Wes has had a lot of stomach aches.

Because while he’ll need pathology to say for sure, he’s pretty confident that Wes has been dealing with gallstones for several years at least.

When Sean explains that Wes is a former foster kid, one for whom malnutrition has been a problem in the past, he nods.

“That would definitely increase the likelihood of them forming.” He agrees. “And I would guess that foster parents who couldn’t be bothered to properly feed him probably didn’t respond positively when he told them his stomach was hurting.”

Sean can tell you right now that the man is correct.

Feels an all too familiar sense of rage toward the social worker who was no doubt as dismissive if not more so than any of his so-called parents.

A sense of hurt that Wes hadn’t felt like he could tell him about it.

“He’s in recovery now, could wake up anytime if you’d like to sit with him.” The doctor says, reading the sea of emotions on Sean’s face.

He glances over at Grant.

“Go.” His best friend says. “I’ll make a run by your place, get both of you some things and circle back around.”

“Don’t forget-”

“I’ll make sure I grab Tito.” His friend interrupts. “Give a guy some credit.”

He can’t help but chuckle.

Wes has been let down in the past.

A lot.

But he has people now.

The trick is just helping him remember that.

It’s three days before they have a chance to talk.

Wes is home, still on oral antibiotics, but resting in his own bed and already looking miles better.

He swears up and down that he hasn’t kept any stomach pain from Sean, that it hasn’t happened since Sean had taken him in.

Sean decides to believe him, letting the topic die with one last reminder that he’s here no matter what.

That Wes is important to him and nothing is too small to bother him with.

Wes rolls his eyes, responding with his usual teenage smartass but the shy smile that he gives when he thinks Sean isn’t looking anymore tells him everything he needs to know.

The kid understands.

[saturdaynightspecialpresentation]

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

I finally finished this one after stopping in disgust for a long time, and it turns out, no, it doesn't get better towards the end.

Boy, this movie is like, the platonic ideal of the C grade. It does everything just exactly well enough that you have to admit that it's passable, and no better.

Ever.

For pretty much the whole movie.

Like imagine a thermometer with a line labelled "Passable" and the mercury is exactly level with that line and you whip out an electron microscope and zoom in and the mercury isn't even a single nanometer above or below the line.

I really thought I had calibrated my expectations fully, I've watched and enjoyed animated movies that I would describe as middle of the road. I watched Trolls World Tour and My Little Pony: The Movie and The Bad Guys and had a good time with all of them despite the fact that they were far from being masterpieces.

But most mediocre movies come in sort of waves, dipping beneath the level of passable at times but then occasionally cresting above the passable line to become, in fits and starts, better than passable. Just the sheer joy of human creativity should carry most movies along to moments like that but The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a glass flat pond.

It's as though some Maxwell's Demon of Mediocrity went through it and made sure that not one single atom more than it needed to be exactly passible ever got through.

As somebody who likes movies and creativity it somehow manages to be less then the sum of its parts because watching it you see all these moments where the movie is a boulder balanced on this knife edge of possibility and it would only take the tiniest whisp of angel's breath to push it past passable into "Actually pretty good" but the angels hold their breath and the boulder remains still.

It's genuinely infuriating, because you constantly think that surely the next scene will have a single clever joke or little moment that you could latch onto and say, "For those two seconds it was more than just passable" and it never comes.

This eventually inspires a kind of awe, that any corporation could so efficiently and exactly suck all the soul and unpredictability out of a movie while still leaving the exact minimum level of quality needed to make $1 Billion at the box office.

As a movie though I would call it passable.

Rating: A uniform quantity of argon gas at room temperature.

[deluxeloy]

questions you've never been asked before! 14, 23, 38

14: What was your favorite TV show when you were a child?

Whoof, that gets complicated immediately. I switched my fixations around a lot, and also didn't watch that much TV. I always tried to catch pokemon, but given the times it aired, I only caught like half a dozen episodes over many holidays.

There was one show I could watch semi-consistently, though: Het Klokhuis (Dutch for apple core or clockwork house). It aired in the 15-minute window between dinner and het Jeugdjournaal (news for kids) and it was educational, so my parents approved of a little extra screen time. Basically, a 15-minute introduction to some weird specific field, where the host would interview experts and sometimes do little experiments. Covered topics ranged from calibrating thermometers in a specialized facility to workplace safety about lifting heavy things without destroying your back, from famous painters and their styles to apex predators and their role in their ecosystems. It was all geared towards getting children interested in things, and in hindsight, I think I can partially credit it for my interest in science today.

23. What language, besides your native language, would you like to be fluent in?

So I'm already fluent in Dutch and English, and know scraps of German, French and Latin. I think I'd either like an Asian language, like Japanese, Korean or Mandarin (or Tagalog, wink), or a practical language, like sign language or something like that. If I had to choose one right now, I'd choose Mandarin - and not just because of recent events. It's just got a large base of native speakers, so I think it'd be good value.

38. Do you eat breakfast every morning?

Yes. I am very thin, on the edge of being medically underweight, so I do not have a lot of reserves to go on. I get hungry quickly, and I get very cranky when I'm hungry - I need a snack at the very least, or everyone around me is going to have a bad day as well.

[meathermometers]

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have created a new thermometer using atoms boosted to such high energy levels that they are a thousand times larger than normal. By monitoring how these giant "Rydberg" atoms interact with heat in their environment, researchers can measure temperature with remarkable accuracy. The thermometer's sensitivity could improve temperature measurements in fields ranging from quantum research to industrial manufacturing. Unlike traditional thermometers, a Rydberg thermometer doesn't need to be first adjusted or calibrated at the factory because it relies inherently on the basic principles of quantum physics. These fundamental quantum principles yield precise measurements that are also directly traceable to international standards. "We're essentially creating a thermometer that can provide accurate temperature readings without the usual calibrations that current thermometers require," said NIST postdoctoral researcher Noah Schlossberger.

Read more.

[this-is-my-main-i-follow-from]

Chef WK, lead charcuterie specialist in Alberta Canada

Table of contents

1. Control Program Requirements for Fermented Meat Products

2. Facility and Equipment Requirements

3. Starter Culture

4. Chemical Acidification

5. Water Activity Critical Limits

6. Time and Temperature for Fermented Products

7. Fermentation Done at a Constant Temperature

8. Examples of Degree-hours at constant room temperatures

9. Fermentation Done at Different Temperatures

10. Fermentation done at Different temperatures

11. What happens if fermentation fails to hit critical limit?

12. E. coli and Salmonella Control in Fermented Sausages

13. Options for E. coli validation

14. Option1; Heating

15. Option 2; pH, heating, holding, diameter

16. Safety and consistency

Control Program Requirements for Fermented Meat Products

The producer must have a program in place to assess the incoming product. This program should outline specifications for the incoming ingredients. This may include criteria including receiving temperature, farm/ supplier, lot code or packed on date, species/cut etc.

2. Facility and Equipment Requirements

Equipment used in the fermentation process must be included in the operator's prerequisite control programs. These must include the following elements:

Temperature in the fermentation, drying and smoking chambers must be uniform and controlled to prevent any fluctuation that could impact on the safety of the final product.

Fermentation, drying and smoking chambers must be equipped with a shatter resistant indicating thermometer, (or equivalent), with graduations of 1°C or less. If mercury thermometers are used, their mercury columns must be free from separations. All thermometers must be located such that they can be easily read.

Fermentation and smoking chambers must be equipped with a recording thermometer for determining degree-hours calculations in a reliable manner. Recording thermometers are also preferable in drying and aging rooms but, in these rooms, it may be sufficient to read and record the temperatures 2 times a day.

Drying and aging rooms must be equipped with humidity recorders in order to prevent uncontrolled fluctuations of the relative humidity. The only alternative to an automatic humidity recorder in these rooms would be for the company to manually monitor and record ambient humidity twice a day (morning and afternoon) every day with a properly calibrated portable humidity recorder.

For routine monitoring, accurate measurement electronic pH meters (± 0.05 units) should be employed. It is important that the manufacturer's instructions for use, maintenance and calibration of the instrument as well as recommended sample preparation and testing be followed.

When the aw of a product is a critical limit set out in the HACCP plan for a meat product, accurate measurement devices must be employed. It is important that the manufacturer's instructions for use, maintenance and calibration of the instrument be followed.

3. Starter Culture

The operator must use a CFIA approved starter culture. This includes Freeze-dried commercially available culture as well as back-slopping (use of previously successful fermented meat used to inoculate a new batch). When performing back-slopping, the operator must have a control program in place to prevent the transmission of pathogens from when using the inoculum from a previous batch to initiate the fermentation process of a new batch. These must include:

The storage temperature must be maintained at 4°C or less and a pH of 5.3 or less.

Samples for microbiological analysis must be taken to ensure that the process is in line with the specifications.

The frequency of sampling is to be adjusted according to compliance to specifications.

Any batch of inoculum which has a pH greater than 5.3 must be analysed to detect at least Staphylococcus aureus. Only upon satisfactory results will this inoculum be permitted for use in back slopping.

This can be an expensive and a time exhaustive process and is generally avoided due to food safety concerns. AHS does not allow back-slopping.

[Chef WK was in communication with the U of A to get his method, a starter mix, studied.]

4. Chemical Acidification

If product is chemically acidified by addition of citric acid, glucono-delta-lactone or another chemical agent approved for this purpose, controls must be in place and records kept to ensure that a pH of 5.3 or lower is achieved by the end of the fermentation process. These acids are encapsulated in different coatings that melt at specific temperatures, which then release the powdered acids into the meat batter and directly chemically acidulate the protein.

Summer sausage is a very common chemically acidified product. The flavor profile tends to be monotone and lacking depth. 

5. Water Activity Critical Limits

The aw may be reduced by adding solutes (salt, sugar) or removing moisture.

Approximate minimum levels of aw (if considered alone) for the growth of:

molds: 0.61 to 0.96

yeasts: 0.62 to 0.90

bacteria: 0.86 to 0.97

Clostridium botulinum: 0.95 to 0.97

Clostridium perfringens: 0.95

Enterobacteriaceae: 0.94 to 0.97

Pseudomonas fluorescens: 0.97

Salmonella: 0.92 - 0.95

Staphylococcus aureus: 0.86

parasites: Trichinella spiralis will survive at an aw of 0.93 but is destroyed at an aw of 0.85 or less.

The above levels are based on the absence of other inhibitory effects such as nitrite, competitive growth, sub-optimum temperatures, etc., which may be present in meat products. In normal conditions, Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxins are not produced below aw 0.86, although in vacuum packed products this is unlikely below aw 0.89.

6. Time and Temperature for Fermented Products

Certain strains of the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus are capable of producing a highly heat stable toxin that causes illness in humans. Above a critical temperature of 15.6°C, Staphylococcus aureus multiplication and toxin production can take place. Once a pH of 5.3 is reached, Staphylococcus aureus multiplication and toxin production are stopped.

Degree-hours are the product of time as measured in hours at a particular temperature multiplied by the "degrees" measured in excess of 15.6°C (the critical temperature for growth of Staphylococcus aureus). Degree-hours are calculated for each temperature used in the process. The limitation of the number of degree-hours depends upon the highest temperature in the fermentation process prior to the time that a pH of 5.3 or less is attained.

The operator is encouraged to measure temperatures at the surface of the product. Where this is not possible, the operator should utilize fermentation room temperatures. The degree hour calculations are based on fermentation room temperatures. Temperature and humidity should be uniform throughout the fermentation room.

A process can be judged as acceptable provided the product consistently reaches a pH of 5.3 using:

fewer than 665 degree-hours when the highest fermentation temperature is less than 33°C;

fewer than 555 degree-hours when the highest fermentation temperature is between 33° and 37°C; and

fewer than 500 degree-hours when the highest fermentation temperature is greater than 37°C.

This means that as the temperature increases, the amount of time that you have available to reach 5.3 or under is shorter. The warmer the temperature, the sharper the log growth phase of bacteria, which equates to more overshoot in lactic acid production, faster.

8. Examples of Degree-hours at constant room temperatures

Example 1:

Fermentation room temperature is a constant 26°C. It takes 55 hours for the pH to reach 5.3.

Degrees above 15.6°C: 26°C - 15.6°C = 10.4°C Hours to reach pH of 5.3: 55 Degree-hours calculation: (10.4°C) x (55) = 572 degree-hours

The corresponding degree-hours limit (less than 33°C) is 665 degree-hours.

Conclusion: Example 1 meets the guideline because its degree-hours are less than the limit.

Example 2:

Fermentation room temperature is a constant 35°C. It takes 40 hours for the pH to reach 5.3.

Degrees above 15.6°C: 35°C - 15.6°C = 19.4°C Hours to reach pH of 5.3: 40 Degree-hours calculation: (19.4°C) x (40) = 776 degree-hours

The corresponding degree-hours limit (between 33 and 37°C) is 555 degree-hours.

Conclusion: Example 2 does not meet the guideline because its degree-hours exceed the limit

9. Fermentation Done at Different Temperatures

When the fermentation takes place at various temperatures, each temperature step in the process is analyzed for the number of degree-hours it contributes. The degree-hours limit for the entire fermentation process is based on the highest temperature reached during fermentation.

Example 1:

It takes 35 hours for product to reach a pH of 5.3 or less. Fermentation room temperature is 24°C for the first 10 hours, 30°C for second 10 hours and 35°C for the final 15 hours.

Step 1

Degrees above 15.6°C: 24°C - 15.6°C = 8.4°C Hours to reach pH of 5.3: 10 Degree-hours calculation: (8.4°C) x (10) = 84 degree-hours

Step 2

Degrees above 15.6°C: 30°C - 15.6°C = 14.4°C Hours to reach pH of 5.3: 10 Degree-hours calculation: (14.4°C) x (10) = 144 degree-hours

Step 3

Degrees above 15.6°C: 35°C - 15.6°C = 19.4°C Hours to reach pH of 5.3: 15 Degree-hours calculation: (19.4°C) x (15) = 291 degree-hours

Degree-hours calculation for the entire fermentation process = 84 + 144 + 291 = 519

The highest temperature reached = 35°C

The corresponding degree-hour limit = 555 (between 33°C and 37°C)Conclusion: Example 1 meets the guideline because its degree-hours are less than the limit.

10. Fermentation done at Different temperatures

Example 2:

It takes 38 hours for product to reach a pH of 5.3 or less. Fermentation room temperature is 24°C for the first 10 hours, 30°C for the second 10 hours and 37°C for the final 18 hours.

Step 1

Degrees above 15.6°C: 24°C - 15.6°C = 8.4°C Hours to reach pH of 5.3: 10 Degree-hours calculation: (8.4°C) x (10) = 84 degree-hours

Step 2

Degrees above 15.6°C: 30°C - 15.6°C = 14.4°C Hours to reach pH of 5.3: 10 Degree-hours calculation: (14.4°C) x (10) = 144 degree-hours

Step 3

Degrees above 15.6°C: 37°C - 15.6°C = 21.4°C Hours to reach pH of 5.3: 18 Degree-hours calculation: (21.4°C) x (18) = 385.2 degree-hours

Degree-hours calculation for the entire fermentation process = 84 + 144 + 385.2 = 613.2

The highest temperature reached = 37°C

The corresponding degree-hour limit = 555 (between 33°C and 37°C)

Conclusion: Example 2 does not meet the guidelines because its degree-hours exceed the limit.

11. What happens if fermentation fails to hit critical limit?

What happens if the batch takes longer than degree-hours allows? For restaurant level production, it's always safer to discard the product. The toxin that Staph. Aureus produces is heat stable and cannot be cooked to deactivate. In large facilities that produce substantial batches, the operator must notify the CFIA of each case where degree-hours limits have been exceeded. Such lots must be held and samples of product submitted for microbiological laboratory examination after the drying period has been completed. Analyses should be done for Staphylococcus aureus and its enterotoxin, and for principal pathogens, such as E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, and Clostridium botulinum and Listeria monocytogenes.

If the bacteriological evaluation proves that there are fewer than 104 Staphylococcus aureus per gram and that no enterotoxin or other pathogens are detected, then the product may be sold provided that it is labelled as requiring refrigeration.

In the case of a Staphylococcus aureus level higher than 104 per gram with no enterotoxin present the product may be used in the production of a cooked product but only if the heating process achieves full lethality applicable to the meat product.

In the case where Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin is detected in the product the product must be destroyed.

12. E. coli and Salmonella Control in Fermented Sausages

Business' that manufacture fermented sausages are required to control for verotoxinogenic E. coli including E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella when they make this type of product. This includes:

establishments which use beef as an ingredient in a dry or semi-dry fermented meat sausage;

establishments which store or handle uncooked beef on site;

Establishments which do not use beef and do not obtain meat ingredients from establishments which handle beef are not currently required to use one of the five options for the control of E. coli O157:H7 in dry/semi-dry fermented sausages. 

Any processed RTE product containing beef or processed in a facility that also processed beef, must be subjected to a heat treatment step to control E. coli O157:H7. Heating to an internal temperature of 71°C for 15 seconds or other treatment to achieve a 5D reduction is necessary. This is a CFIA requirement and is not negotiable.

Uncooked air dried products produced as RTE, must meet shelf stable requirements as detailed for Fermented-Dry products.

13. Options for E. coli validation

Without lab testing, the two main methods of validation are with heat treating by either low temp and a long duration, or various hotter processing temperatures for a shorter timeframe.

A challenge study to validate a process can take 1 year and over $100,000!

14. Option1; Heating

15. Option 2; pH, heating, holding, diameter

16. Safety and consistency

The aw and pH values are critical in the control of pathogens as well as to ensure shelf-stability in all semi-dry and dry fermented meat products. Each batch must be tested for aw and/or pH in order to verify that the critical limits are met.

Although aw measurement is mandatory only for shelf stable products, it is strongly recommended that the producer determine the aw values achieved for each product type they manufacture and for each product. Once this has been established, frequent regular checks should be made to ensure consistency. In the U.S., they rely on moisture to protein ratio and have set targets. This lab-tested value is a direct correlation of the % water to % meat protein and not aw. This gives more consistency to common names. For example, to legally call a product "jerky" it must have a MPR of 0.75:1 or lower. Remember your ABCs:

Always be compliant. 

-AND-

Documentation or it didn't happen.

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